Skørping School by VEGA landskab

Built in 2022 / 2025 Built Landscapes / 2025 Entries / 2025 Schools and Playgrounds / Denmark /
vegalandskab.dk

The new schoolyard at Skørping School strengthens the joy of movement by integrating the forest into the schoolyard as an active part of school life. At Skørping School, the children are explorers, interacting with and learning about nature while having fun. The play area is targeted towards students in middle and upper grades – both those who are already active and those who are difficult to motivate. It also functions as an active area for the whole community of Skørping.

The woods around the schoolyard are part of Rold Skov. The vegetation is a blend of deciduous and coniferous trees with old mature specimens and an area of smaller saplings. The wood and the school used to be separate entities, with the wood making up the fourth wall in the schoolyard. To create a clear transition area between forest and school, Vega chose to remove some trees and plant several new ones to provide cohesion. The ‘forest loop’ is the main route in the outdoor areas. This route takes students from the central schoolyard all the way out into the forest and back again. Various types of play stations create space for all groups of students – such as swings, a skate park, monkey bars, balancing beams and café tables.

Vega conducted a user involvement process with teachers, who generously shared their experiences and observations. The teachers emphasized accessibility, inclusivity and mobility. Vega distilled their input into a set of criteria, and used these to design the play area, with the following results. First, the playground has a diverse set of smaller activity areas rather than one large one. The fences around the ball courts are low, making them more accessible and the games more technical and less demanding. Vega placed furniture close to activity zones, encouraging observation as an activity in itself. A large transitional area between the school and the forest defines the ‘free play zone’. Finally, the mobility loop with activities all the way along turns the playground into a never-ending journey instead of a path with a beginning and an end.

The mobility loop is a 450m long wooden deck with different heights, widths and activities along its length. The loop meanders in and out between the school and the woods, expanding the playground to a much bigger area for the children to play in. This large wooden structure not only offers a route through the woods, but also functions as a space-defining element that offers an alternative to the traditional schoolyard, which often favours kids that are socially and physically strong. Instead, the project introduces a variety of smaller activities and playing fields: A café, small courts for ball games, a hopscotch area, a treehouse, and an outdoor TV monitor for activities like ´just dance’. All of these activities are scalable, allowing children of different abilities to choose their level of play. The smaller and more numerous activity zones create opportunities for more groups to play at the same time. The wooden structure itself works on many levels; as a mobility loop, as a connection between the school and the forest, as outdoor furniture where one can sit and reflect and as an outdoor learning space. As a mobility loop the wooden structure offers a wide range of activities: balancing beams, swinging bars, climbing net, climbing ladders and a skate park. For the quiet observer there are areas in the loop designed for relaxing, with nooks and crannies to sit in smaller groups, as well as a treehouse where students can sit in silent reflection or share secrets with friends all the while looking down at the activity going on around the loop. In the newest fase of the project another part of the schoolyard was renovated too and had to be integrated in the comprehensive plan, this time for the younger kids too. The forest are here pulled in as an island in the schoolyard, where a rainwater biotope should slowly evolve and create a new spatial division with the fast-growing willow.

The loop is influenced by the works of artists Gunnar Aagard Andersen and Christo, which can be seen in the way the loop consistently folds the wood and the way it rests in the landscape. The project has been developed in collaboration with Skælskør Landscape Gardener, Hede Danmark, KKK Kvalitetsbyg, and Skørping School.

• Other credits you need or wish to write:
Pictures: VEGA, Leif Tuxen, Simon Jeppesen.

• Location of the project
Himmerlandsvej 65, 9520 Skørping. DK