Collingwood College

Wurundjeri Country

Victoria

The Collingwood College playspace was a well-loved and utilised area of this P - 12  school.

The Urban Discovery Collective were engaged to design and construct an upgrade to the environment which would encourage and promote immersive play for students in line with the schools core values.

In addition to maximising opportunities for play, the design also needed to consider the varying uses, users and needs for the space, mitigate site storm water and flooding issues and be achievable within a conservative budget.

Our team of education/pedagogy specialists, Landscape Designers, First Nations guides and therapeutic and artistic practitioners,  worked together with students and school leaders to develop the design which was achieved by the restoration of natural ecosystems on the site and the provision of habitat for play.

We created diversity in the play types and elements suitable for the range of learners, swathes of planting were utilised to create ‘nooks’ and zones and previously unused steep areas of the site were activated through the inclusion of bespoke play elements. Existing infrastructure was repaired and refurbished wherever possible and learning decks created at the entrance to each classroom gave presence and identity, whilst also allowing for ease of flow and the integration of indoor and outdoor learning and regulation opportunities for students. The existing climbing opportunities were extended and a range of other zones, including food growing areas, were developed to diversify engagements and stimulate curiosity and possibility in the space.

The intentional location of elements has meant the play is varied and distributed and promotes whole body movement and experiential learning to occur spontaneously, as in the example of the collection and delivery systems of water the students have developed, whereby they pump water into a wheelbarrow, carefully travel along the foliage lined meandering pathway to the angled carved log on the western slope and collaboratively transfer the water from the barrow at the bottom to the channel at the top. A plethora of possibilities in learning outcomes and engagements are generated in this way.

Authentic nature inspired sense of place invites the children and teachers to immerse and create each day within the environment. The redevelopment from this perspective shifts the materiality of a traditional play ground. Bringing natural materials to these spaces offer opportunity for exploration, experimentation and investigation.  The restored ecosystem acts as not only a rich place for loose parts but furthermore to activate other framework and curriculum connections such as STEAM.

Inclusions such as mud kitchens, water pumps, climbing, building, huts, loose parts, tinker boxes, creative investigation tables invite children to immerse themselves in the child's work of play.