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Dordrecht Energy Carousel: Exploring playground potential

Category: ⚐ EN+competitions+ecosistema urbano

Ecosistema Urbano’s energy carousel, created for the Carve design contest for the Dordecht space, Governeurs Plein, has been designed to serve as meeting place for different age groups. As a forest of revolving rope swings that hang at different lengths, the hanging rope seats towards the center of the structure accommodate smaller, younger children, while taller, older children may grab onto the shorter ropes on the outside.  the kinetic energy that is released by the children’s hanging and turning on the ropes is captured via carousel structure and stored in a battery underneath the play site. When the park begins to lose light, the carousel’s battery supplies energy  to light up the structure. When the speed of play increases, the lamps will light up brighter. The color of the lights also change according to how much energy has been generated for the battery on any particular day. Over the past year, the design for the Carousel was developed with three phases. You may view the planning documents here: continue reading

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ecosistema urbano wins competition for unconventional play object

Category: ⚐ EN+competitions+ecosistema urbano

Last year, the Amsterdam design bureau Carve developed a plan for a new public square in Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Carve specializes in the design and engineering of public space for use by children and young people. Their plan for the new square in Dordrecht, named Governeurs Plein, included five open spaces for the addition of unconventional play objects.

In cooperation with the Centre for Visual Arts in Dordrecht, Carve invited 10 design firms to develop inventive, resourceful and multi-age friendly objects to complete their final design for Governeurs Plein. Ecosistema Urbano and the nine other bureaus invited submitted the following Proposals: continue reading