Brief: To design and build a 3 in 1 children’s school garden. Play, sensory and educational areas set within a garden environment.
This garden was built in conjunction with Spraoi Linn, Irelands leading Play Ground Equipment Suppliers.
Design: This being all about fun and learning I had to squeeze as much as possible into a predefined section of existing Tar-Mac playground, whilst allowing a garden experience as well.
The design is a series of three feature gardens; educational; play & sensory, with circles interlinked with coloured ‘discs’.
The Educational garden features a small acting stage; a stone chalkboard; raised ’woodland Walk’ along with magnificent hand carved Oak reading throne and nature based Totem Pole at the entrance.
The Play garden is dominated by a large multi-functional piece of play apparatus with fixed seating, play tables and a covered sand pit.
The Sensory garden is entered through a circle of multi coloured poles set around a Maple tree. Interlocking coloured stepped ‘discs’ lead to a mini-maze and tree seat feature. Finally, the main sensory activities garden area is set up with various wooden musical instruments; xylophone, bongo drums; cow bells and tubular bells.
I fought hard to retain adequate space to allow for a full planting scheme of both semi-mature trees and shrub planting to ensure that this facility develops not only as an educational tool but also as a natural environment for ongoing generations of children to enjoy.
