This brand new playground is located in a densely built up residential and business quarter which was founded on the former harbour area of Harburg, a district of Hamburg on the southern banks of the river Elbe. Today there are still channels, bridges, harbour buildings and traces of the huge narrow gauge railway transport system visible of which some kept as monuments. The mixture of historical remnants and new structures inspired us to design a playground referring to the typical harbour and railway elements such as cranes, boxes or rails to play with by combining them with trees, shrubs and topography. Even two green hilly tartan islands for climbing and balancing fit into the maritime environment. The idea of moving und transporting goods and materials lead to a specific design of the playing equipment. The central attraction is a miniature hoisting crane connected with a sand transportation system and an outlook at the top.
Furthermore children can follow an railway track, an parkour of wooden bridges, logs and boxes for improving their climbing, balancing und jumping skills. An U-shaped granite wall functions hereby as a guideline through the playground leading the children along the parkour, while separating the different playing areas and ground materials at the same time. To prevent smaller children from running across the street we created a wooden fence in the shape of a 2D steam train with several wagons. In one part the fence expand into a 3D roofed wagon to include the fence into the playing experience and providing shelter.
So the fence is not only a technical device but is meant as an iconic and colorful gadget that makes this playground also visible from the street. The playground surface is partly paved with simple 10/20cm concrete stones to form an organic topography and the Hamburg public standard 50x50cm concrete paving slab. Rails are imitated by lines of black basalt paving stones and the planted areas are surrounded by granite palisades. The site is framed by widening green spaces, covered with shrubs and trees, to give it more privateness and windbreak. A canopy of deciduous tree species such as Acer rubrum, Acer campestre, Quercus palustris and Liquidambar styraciflua provide shadow and and cool down the paved and sandy surfaces. Prunus subhirtella, Malus floribunda, Malus Evereste show blossoms in spring and fruits in autumn. Ground covering and shrubs like Aronia prunifolia `Viking`, Hypericum erectum `Gemo`, Spirea betulifolia, Syringa Meyeri `Palibin` create a second layer of planting.
Name of the project: Let’s play moving goods!
Project category: SCHOOLS AND PLAYGROUNDS
Designers involved in the design of landscape: Jessica Uhrig M.Sc., Dipl. Ing. Ando Yoo
Project location: Theodor-Yorck-Straße, 21079 Hamburg, Germany
Design year: 2016
Year Built: 2019
Photos: Jutta Yoo
