St Andrew’s Stewart Junior Center
When Jasmax landscape architect Adrian Taylor set out to design the St Andrew’s Stewart Junior Centre playground he had two words in mind – “Wow Factor!” That is what his client had asked for, and that is what he planned to deliver.
After working through the concept development process, Adrian returned with a plan that delivered the ‘Wow Factor’ his client was looking for. The concept he came up with was for a ‘Play Sandwich’ where the core fillings were two playgrounds; one for the Pre-School and one for the Junior School.
The overall design followed a hatchling to fledgling theme that reflected the role the school has in preparing its young students for life; nurturing them through Pre-School and Junior School and setting them up for success beyond.
Products used:
Pour'n'Play
PermaTurf
The Pre-School design included three ‘Play Eggs’ made out of Numat’s Pour‘n’Play, each with their own play feature; climbing grips, a slide, a tunnel, and even a bridge between two of the eggs. The Pour’n’Play was installed in bands or colour giving the eggs a fun and almost festive feel.
For the Junior School the design was for a ‘Play Forest’ where graduating ‘hatchlings’ from the Pre-School could take flight. Within the Play Forest there were three different play nests; the ‘Chirping Nest’ which was designed to have a lot of musical instrument play, the ‘Rope Nest Monster’ which plays on the school’s Scottish heritage, and the ‘Crow’s Nest’ which tops out at 3 metres, the max height before an enclosed platform is required.
Adrian says it was important to have the 3-metre height in the design as it enabled him to install a big slide; a feature the children of the school specifically requested.
When it came to surface selection Adrian says there were a few key considerations. Durability and performance were important, as was the colour range. With these considerations in mind, the decision to use Pour’n’Play was an easy one.
When asked what he liked most about working with Pour’n’Play, Adrian replies, “I think it was the way that you could design something so crisp and so graphic and have it executed so closely as you intended right down to the colour mixes. Being able to mould it over any kind of shape, especially irregular forms. As a designer, having that flexibility is absolutely optimum because you can design to your heart’s content knowing that you’ve got a product that can execute it as intended.”
