Designing and building a children’s bamboo & hemp playground

Abstract

A course named “Building with Bamboo” is part of the final year curriculum of the building engineer at Avans University Tilburg, AB&I, department of architecture. Within this course students can earn 2x3 E.C. over a period 2x10 days. From September 2015 up to January 2016 the subject of the course involved the designing and building of a children’s playground made of bamboo and hemp. The playground is situated in Antwerp (Belgium) on the inner courtyard of an elementary school for children between 6 and 12 years of age. This particular school attracts a high number of children who do not speak Dutch as a native language. To help establish a better and faster communication with them, the children were invited to come up with ideas for their new playground. These ideas were transformed into 6 proposals by our building engineer students, and put on display at the elementary school. One design, chosen by the children and their parents, was picked out. Prior to execution our students prepared IKEA-like manuals to involve the children of the primary school in the construction of their bamboo playground as much as possible. Parts of the playground were prefabricated and a mock-up was made with the help of the children. Eventually the playground, a 3-dimentional labyrinth made out of bamboo and hemp measuring 5x5x5m, was erected in 4 days by 39 students. Protection methods against decay due to sun and moisture exposure were implemented. Special care has been given to the foundation of the bamboo poles and to lashing techniques used for connecting the bamboo pole structure. A maintenance manual has been given to the teachers of the elementary school. A follow up to study the decay of bamboo and hemp, being expose to a West-European climate, was planned.