year: 2012

Silvery Delights and a new design for Vriendschapsplein, Rotterdam

team: Eric Douma landschapsarchitectuur & HUNK-design
interns: Jo Scappini, Jolien de Baets & Lisbet Cools
made possible by: Deelgemeente Noord, Havensteder, CBK & WWI
special thanks to: Anna Dijkhuis, Tom Warnik, Albert Kramer

A bit hidden in the Provenierswijk, a residential neighbourhood in Rotterdam, is now a small lovely playground full with flowering plants and our Pink Peddled Silvery Delights in which you can climb and chat with friends. Between the street and the garden is a fence along which fragrant lavenders grow and you enter the garden underneath a garden rose arch. In the garden grow lovely smelling butterfly bushes, lilac trees and cheerful boxwood bolls. Girls chatter and giggle together while the little ones play with their parents sitting and enjoying the sun.

This project arose from an initiative of neighbours who have their gardens bordering on the playground. They experienced nuisance by kids playing ball against their at the time run-down fences, the garden had a desolate appearance and there was not a playground in the neighbourhood especially for some quiet playing and chatting. The fences have been restored and the gardens now border on a sheltered playground which is due to its new design used in the preferred way.

Now there is a playground for the more quiet children. At a nearby playground, the quiet kids were ‘pushed’ aside by the very active children. Neighbours thought that the quiet kids also deserved a place of their own. By using nudging techniques and the science of environmental psychology we created a different playground. One where the children can play calmly. Everything is positioned in such a way that it is only inviting for peaceful games.

It was our wish to work as environmentally friendly as possible, so we replaced the grey side-walk tiles with lots of plants and tracks of shell grit. The old playhouse with slide was re-used, painted in matching colours and replaced in a better spot. The benches have also been re-used. The Silvery Delights have been made of environmentally friendly materials like AcrilicOne and re-used styrofoam. The Astroturf is durable and can eventually be transformed according to the cradle-to-cradle concept.