OTO proposes a new park and playground in front of a new kindergarten which offers the building a new green adress. By transforming the existing site into a park with waterstorage and wadi’s, a new front for the new kindergarten emerges at this park. By turning the adress to the park, the bike and pedestrian routes become more important.

Water can infiltrate into the wadi; by doing this the pollution of sewage and drought will be minimized and the water quality will be improved. The new park will function as playground. The vegetation is site specific with it’s flowery wet grassland and willows and ash trees. A new path connects building and park, the plinth connects path and building and is a welcoming gesture; a robust concrete platform wit a stairs and ramp. The elevated platform offers a nice view on the playground and wadi which debouches into the creek.

The garden of the school is surrounded by the building and forms an enclosed garden, protected from the parking lot and features a sandpit, shrubs and trees to climb in. The pavement consist of concrete flagstones with green seams throughout the gardens. A storage is designed as a small house to climb on. The natural playground is located in the parkarea with a challenging playground which has artificial heights of grasshills.

The parking lot is perceived as a green chamber which is lowered to minimize the visual impact on the area. Permeable pavement of gravel forces cars to slow down and let the water infiltrate the soil

The whole area is perceived as a adventurous landscape where different games and ways of playing can be enjoyed. Instead of a standardized playground in which the objects are key, here the whole area is a playground in itself and offers a lot of playful conditions which challenges people in general and children in particular.

  • Year
    2017
  • Location
    Zwijndrecht
  • Client
    Zwijndrecht, Vlaams Bouwmeester
  • Collaborators
    Bovenbouw architecten
  • Status
    Finalist
  • Type
    Climate, Healthy, Mobility, New nature, Park & public space, Water