By Yusuke Ohno , Takashi Machidori | Project Member
We are making place for play while supporting the management of Koganehama Chibikko Hiroba (Koganehama Kid’s Playground) conducted by local residents and volunteer groups. We have built play equipment by utilizing stuffs being at that place, such as a wood getting salt damage, debris carried by the tsunami, rusted nails. It is the playground which is developing continually.
On this day, we were making a plan with children for building up a play equipment. Firstly, children drew on paper what they want, and we put the drawings on a wall. They gave us a lot of ideas, such as a secret base on a roof, a slide from a roof, a roof top garden, a jungle gym, and hand-made soccer and basketball goal frames.
Then, we made a model of the playground from corrugated cardboard, nails, and small pieces of debris, based on children’s opinions. Afterwards, we discussed the arrangement of the play equipment, and made decisions of zones and the positions of equipment, while thinking of flow lines, ranges of people’s view fields, and character of play.
Finally, we decided to made “soccer and basketball goal frames”, as the first hand-made play equipment. On another day, we started to build up the unique goal frames, by using stuffs we found in the playground before, like pieces of debris and fishnets.
In the beginning, we selected materials which we use, and put them in decreasing order in size. Because the frame is required to be hard to break, it was decided to build it up in a triangular shape.
We arranged the materials on the ground, and shared the total image. Children started to make it by using saws, hammers, and nails. After a little time, an older child told the younger how to use a saw. After nailing the fishnet to the frame, they played soccer with much fun.
Next up is the basket goal frame. Children hung a net to a wheel from a bicycle, and nailed it on a wooden pole. However, when they made a dunk, it was broken. We sought to fix it through a trial and error process, but at that time, it was too difficult to make the basket goal frame which is not broken by a dunk shot. Therefore, we set a specific rule that prohibits a dunk shot, but we would like to let them dunk as soon as possible. This is our assignment until next time.
If you pay money for it, you would not need to make a play equipment by yourself. However, children can learn many things from the mistakes which they got in the process of making the equipment. Unless children stop being creative and being excited, this playground will not stop developing.
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