Kids get creative with ideas for Lakefront play area
Health and safety, look away — Rotorua tamariki are using straws, playdough and their wild imagination to help design the new Lakefront playground.
As part of the Lakefront revitalisation, a new play space will replace the existing Volcanic Playground and a series of workshops are being held to allow local children to be involved in its design.
The workshops, the first of which was held yesterday, are led by play space landscape designers from Isthmus, the studio designing the space.
A few minutes was all it took for the group of 16 children to get stuck in yesterday, excited about a new playground on the way.
Luca Finlayson, 11, had ideas of a playground that catered to all ages and skills, beginning with a square platform.
A staircase for the younger kids to get up, as well as a rope-ladder, slide, and rockwall would make sure everyone could play.
Lucy Gaston loved the playgrounds but the 11-year-old wanted the new one to have more of a social message with her oceanwave design.
The wave frame would be a climbing wall, with shells as the grips.
“And a plastic bag swing to compare pollution and then what it was before.”
Isthmus architect Zach Barker said the process of working with the children was both fun and insightful.
“You get to learn about the community and see what the end users will want.”
An approximate size and knowing “roughly” where the playground will go is pretty much all that is known at this stage.
“What it looks like, as an image, we don’t know that yet,” Barker said.
Work on the new play space is due to begin in December.
The next design workshop will be held tomorrow from 1.30pm to 2.30pm, and next Thursday at the same time.