OLIVE SCHOOL PLAYGROUND

Conversion from a concrete loading bay to school playground

This was a significant challenge to resolve and to transform usage from a vast concrete loading zone with 20cm think concrete base with a very limited budget. I needed to create a safe, fun, shady, green playground zone for the “Olive tree school”. I set about to break the austerity of the hard geometric environment and created a division in the playground for some soft surfacing and designed spaces for many shade giving trees. I needed to use my limited budget wisely and to limit the amount of planting holes in the concrete, as this required heavy, expensive drilling machinery. So I focused my attention of providing fast growing, broad, semi evergreen, shade giving Tipuana trees to break up the whole playground area. And to create a central focus to plant the ‘OLIVE TREE’-  and make sense of the school name.

BEFORE

original & process

Conversion from a concrete loading bay to school playground Involving heavy earthworks to make holes in 20cm concrete. Plant delivery, Olive placement, positioning & stabilisation.