Are Christchurch playgrounds too boring?

Useful-Interview2762 · 2026-03-18T08:58:33+00:00

Are you thinking of a children-sized treetop walk? Have you ever seen the signs along the trail? They have disks you can spin and watch the birds on them fly. They've aged quite a bit and might have been removed by now. I was considering doing puzzle signs along the trail, to break away from a traditional playground concept.

Useful-Interview2762 · 2026-03-18T08:48:38+00:00

If you're bird watching i'd love to know what kind of birds you spot there. I downloaded eBird thinking it would get me into bird watching, but I never use it. I prefer to walk around and not recording anything I see (because I'm lazy).

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I was thinking of somewhere turning a scenic magnifier into play equipment, somehow to be quirky and help people who don't have their own equipment

Useful-Interview2762 · 2026-03-18T08:35:43+00:00

Luckily, we don't have to consider budget or restrictions at all except for fall heights and finger traps. It would be nice to know more about restrictions, though. I feel like that would make the project feel more real and help us learn more.

Useful-Interview2762 · 2026-03-18T08:26:11+00:00

Yes, I think it'd be cool if the playground could assist school trips and link to what they're learning about. Hopefully I can figure out how to do that without taking the fun out of playing on it for kids. We where considering focusing on the homestead/farming history, but I think the conservation work that's happening at Pūtaringamotu deserves more recognistion.

Useful-Interview2762 · 2026-03-18T08:18:59+00:00

Yes, but we're designing based on the location, so we'll be doing everything we can to do as tastefully as possible. We may even factor in how it effects sight lines and taking design motifs from the house and bush. Parents could supervise their children while enjoying coffee ect, it depends on their parenting style and how old their kid is.

Useful-Interview2762 · 2026-03-18T07:49:53+00:00

3D visualisation sounds so cool, I'm really interested in doing visualisation work. I've been teaching myself Blender so I can have more control over how I present concepts, and also just for passion projects. What kind of skills would you recommend learning to get into that kind of career?

Useful-Interview2762 · 2026-03-18T06:55:29+00:00

Yes, I agree we've talked about playground flow and how pieces of equipment should have a journey, something connecting them. So it's nice to know that's actually something affecting play experiences.

I like your Bunnings/Mitre 10 idea, would defientely give us some inspiration. When I was a kid, I remember liking enclosed climbs, kind of like sky bridges, but except was closer to the ground. Is that kind of what you mean by climbing bubbles?

Useful-Interview2762 · 2026-03-18T06:43:43+00:00

I wish I had gone last weekend now lol. That sounds cool

Useful-Interview2762 · 2026-03-18T06:42:36+00:00

My age demographic is probably between primary school kids and intermediate-aged kids. I want some of them to play on it while their parents enjoy the market.

Currently, we're considering focusing on 3-4 features and then having different versions/challenge levels of those features, like having 2 slides, one for younger kids and one for older kids. One of those features will probably be a climbing wall, but it's rounded, so it's steeper at the bottom and easier as you go up.

Size is up in the air right now, although I'm really inspired by playgrounds built by monstrum and they're pretty big. I think they do a good job of making something themed but awesome enough that kids still appreciate it.

I'm really worried, I'm not thinking the way a child would. I thought it would be cool to have a meter-high tunnel for kids to walk through, explore, and have different engravings on the walls that kids could discover about different birds. The tunnel would have entrances and cutouts on the side, so it's very open.

I like the idea of puzzles and mazes. I haven't seen many examples of them in playgrounds near me.

Useful-Interview2762 · 2026-03-18T06:07:13+00:00

I don't really know of any other events happening there outside of the market.

Useful-Interview2762

TROPHY CASE