Over 100 volunteers
Over 10 schools
Over 4000 children
2 Continents
100s of creative ideas
Crowcroft park primary school
Manchester
Crowcroft primary school is located in Longsight, an economically deprived and ethnically diverse area in the city of Manchester. The play spaces they had mainly encouraged physical play and the children lack space where they could experience more diverse play. They also had a 280 m2 space at the centre of the school, surrounded by classrooms with other grown planters, that were not being used. They desired a space were children between the ages of 5-11.
We partnered with Tony Gee and Partners to conduct interactive STEM design workshops with children between the ages of 8-9 years and build the play space.
Stage 1: Design workshop
30 children took part in 8 co-design workshops with the support of over 20 volunteers from Tony Gee and Partners consultancy. There challenge was to create a play space where they could interact with nature, have class outside and of course, have lots of fun. They learnt about materials, sustainability and designing inclusively. They also were able to draw and model their play spaces in teams.
Because children are our design partners.
I really like that the children got involved right from the beginning and they were involved right though the whole process of the design.
Stage 2: making their designs a reality
During the final workshop the children presented their designs and we agreed what ideas would be created in the play space. Now we had to decide where we should place each feature to maximise accessibility, play and resilience. We also selected natural or reused material to make them. Lastly, we worked with the teachers to understand if any other features would help to enhance children's play.
Because we place children's needs and sustainability at the core of our mission.
These workshops were a fantastic way to introduce the children to the world of engineering.
In collaboration with Tony Gee and partners volunteers and local craftsmen, we have create a play area over 5 years enables 450 children to explore nature, relax, challenge their physical mobility, socialise and be creative. We achieved our goal to sustainably built with all-natural or recycled materials
I think its important that we managed to transform a previously un-used space into something that the children can actually use.
Final build
Volunteer painting
Final build
Before the build
Volunteers building
Volunteers building
