This project aims to provide an outdoor playground for the grade school students of Foundation University in Dumaguete City, Philippines. Currently, there is no existing playground thus, grade school students opt to run around the campus and has made it difficult for mentors and parents to keep track of the kids' safety. The design and construction is led by the Senior Architecture students under the Estudio Damgo program of the Department of Architecture and Fine Arts.
Due to the onset of technology, kids are engaged more with activities with the usage of technological devices and gadgets that makes them lose their personal social interaction with the physical world. The challenge of today's parents and educators is to encourage person to person interactions among this current generation of youngsters. The current trend has posed a problem on kids regarding their poor social skills as these devices make them more timid and shy in the long run.
More than the play, the main goal of building a playground is to enhance person to person relationships through actual socialization. Since the available space is limited, the solution is to create a design concept wherein the play activities are concentrated on a mound at the center which will still allow the kids to run around the area. A synthetic grass surface will be used for the areas that have high foot traffic. However, natural grass can grow on the playground's remaining parts.
Playgrounds are known and proven to benefit kids in the different aspects of their lives, and hence also that of their parents, teachers and the community. Since local playgrounds typically have safety issues, fall into disrepair or simply unattractive to the kids - leading to these being unused, this playground can serve as an example for other schools and communities on how to create an effective play space.
