Part of NZTA’s Waterview Connection project, Waterview Reserve is a brand new hub for the recreationally minded. By far the most colourful and fun part of the massive civic project, the playground sprawls amongst the reserve alongside the new sports courts and public walkways.
Well Connected Alliance carried out the construction of the project, with NZTA as the overall developer of the project. Leading design consultancy firm Boffa Miskell was the architectural team behind the project. The company has been involved in many, high profile park and recreation projects throughout New Zealand and overseas and their experience proved invaluable to the playground development.
Leading the project was Senior Landscape Architect Larissa Rose, whose innovative vision for the playground became a reality thanks to the versatility and robustness of Pour’n’Play surfacing.
Larissa has created an adventurous landscape where children of all ages can swing, climb, slide and venture into ‘risk-taking’ areas. The playground also features a five-metre tube slide, an interactive water play area, a waka, a climbing net and tunnels through the mounds.
The main feature of the playground is the water play area, which sits close to a sandpit. This mixed-use area needed to withstand the impact of an army of pint-sized jumpers – the climbers and splashers – and cope with the ongoing effects of water and sand moving around on the surface.
For Larissa the choices made on surfacing came down to performance and aesthetics. “We could use the Pour’n’Play in the water environment as well as under the play equipment and over the mounds,” says Larissa. “So we were able to achieve a free-flowing site. I could achieve the desired variations in levels without having to build in stops or edging.”
Importantly for Larissa, she was able to avoid concrete surfacing typically found in water play areas.
“It was easy to wrap the surface up and over the mounds and under the waka as well as being able to change the colours as it went through different areas.”
Numat stood out from the rest for a number of practical reasons as well. “The warranty offered by Numat was one of the key deciding factors,” says Larissa. Also, it was nice to pick specific colours. From a design perspective, this was much better than being stuck with standard options.”
Once all the design details were settled it was a matter of rolling up the sleeves and ensuring everything was in place and on time.
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