It was easy to recognise why LUC won the prestigious design competition with erect architecture to design the social core of the northern part of the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park, as part of the Legacy project following the London 2012 Olympics.
Their concept design is based upon ecological concepts of succession and lifecycles. This central theme runs throughout both the timber lodge café and the naturalistic play area, which features large bespoke timber structure and other well-chosen play pieces plus a variety of play equipment from Timberplay’s Richter Spielgeräte.
The development of the Tumbling Bay play space within the North Park is a major lynch pin in the creation of a new community as part of the Olympic legacy programme.
Work is on-going on thousands of dwellings at the park in Stratford, East London, but LUC completed the installation of the playground and café in summer 2013 and it is now open for use.
Joanne Sheridan, Head of Marketing at Timberplay comments: “Tumbling Bay demonstrates a jaw-dropingly fantastic approach to play design, with sand, water and bespoke play elements coming together to create a holistic and challenging play space that will delight the children lucky enough to experience it. LUC has created some incredible spaces over the years and we are very proud that it chose to work with Timberplay and include Richter products in what can only be described as some of the best play areas in the UK.”
The Tumbling Bay play area includes extensive sand and water play. The benefits of this kind of provision is that they appeal to a wide age range and nurture communication between children, as they work together to move the sand or pump and transport the water. The waterplay area was created to reference many different types of waterway, through a series of rivulets, channels and canals all created within the surface. These are fed from several water pumps, with locks and gates throughout the system.
The landscaping is a huge part of the success of the play area, with banks, loose fill surfacing, as well as wheelchair friendly resin bonded mulch, carefully selected plants to demonstrate the ecology theme and sculptural elements. There are also a several ‘germinating’ willow pods, with plans to create a willow store so that children can create their own dens.
Timberplay provided a number of pieces of equipment for the Tumbling Bay play area, including water elements, platform huts, climbing ropes, tunnel slide, balance blocks and jumping discs. The play areas also includes two Atlantida drinking fountains to ensure that playing children have refreshment on tap.