Thursday 25 June 2009

Adventurous structures


A structural workshop happened yesterday for the Kilburn Grange Park adventure playground. The children first learned basic structural principles. After sketching proposals for structures they went on to put into practice what they had learned in the morning and build large scale models in the park, on the grounds of the future adventure playground. All structures were features the children imagined as part of the adventure playground: A tunnel was entered via a Magnolia tree, a jagged slide descended in circles around a fruit tree, a dome-den showed great structural discipline (Buckminster Fuller would have loved it!). A very poetic treehouse was completed by the leafy canopy of another Magnolia tree, a bridge was built across the path and a tower erected so tall that our structural engineer Toby could not reach the top (and he is 2.00m tall!).
The workshop was run by Tall Engineers, erect architecture and The Building Exploratory.
All structures, which survived the very intensive testing (the tunnel exploded due to overcrowding), are on show in the yard of the old nursery building.

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