2022 - 2023 | Pokhara, Annapurna
We are building a new playground
The future Playgrounds project was created during the Corona years. After we and our partners from the Namaste Community Foundation and Pokhara United had completed the final work on the school in Purkot, Tanahun, which had been rebuilt after the earthquake. The resulting range of installed play equipment and recreational areas for the children did not quite meet the sustainable initial plans of our association. As a result, Nils and Thomas Nauta (M.A. Architecture), who already had experience in building bamboo structures, started thinking about a playground and space concept made of bamboo in the summer of 2021.
Over the course of 2022, donations were collected for the project and at the end of the year, a small team set off for Nepal. Among them were Lars Brian Kaul (B.A. Architecture & Carpentry), Manolis Baier (Communication Designer), Hendrik Anatol Eggelsmann (Carpenter), Jana Köhle (B.A. Architecture) and Nils Siddhartha Wübbena (B.A. Architecture & Founding Member). There, they developed a new concept together with the school. They also took care of the demolition of buildings in danger of collapsing and used the rubble and exposed natural stone to build two staircases that made it much easier for the children to get to school.
The problem
In the mountain regions of Nepal, children now have to find their fun primarily in plastic playgrounds mass-produced in China. Although these solutions are inexpensive, they are not very sustainable in many respects. We want to change that.
There are probably few places that we associate so much with a modest life in the rhythm of nature as the remote regions of the Himalayas. But even there - in the Nepalese region of Pokhara, for example - the spirit of materialism has now taken hold. More and more people are turning to brightly coloured plastic products, including for children's playgrounds. The big problem: even though Nepalese culture has developed in harmony with nature for thousands of years, there is often a lack of awareness of sustainability and the necessary expertise, especially among the newer generation. As a result, increasingly questionable purchasing and consumption decisions are being made that are not only aesthetically detached from the Nepalese natural landscape.
The background
With our ‘Future Playgrounds’ concept, we want to take up old Nepalese traditions and implement them in a contemporary way.
The so-called ‘lingeping’, a swing that is traditionally set up on the occasion of the ‘Dashain Festival’ - probably Nepal's most important bank holidays - is made exclusively from bamboo and hemp ropes. Once a year, it is set up on the mountainside in every village to give those swinging the opportunity to let go of their earthly existence for a moment. However, due to a lack of interest from the younger generation and too little space in the towns, this tradition unfortunately seems to have waned in recent years. Instead, colourful plastic can be seen everywhere.
Play!
Together with the village communities, schools, nurseries and parents, we want to build new playgrounds in keeping with this tradition from October 2022 - using local and sustainable building materials. In this way, we want to remind people of the importance of play and their traditions and at the same time provide them with the necessary resources and expertise to build sustainably themselves in the future. We involve the community in the process and the underlying ideas, thus creating an awareness of sustainable solutions.
The ‘Future Playground’ wants to break away from the rigid idea of a children's playground and redefine the playground as such: It can and may be anything the village community needs - a new ‘place to be’, a meeting place, a playground for adults, a stage, a new cultural venue for the community. We also want to turn the opening of the new playground into a cultural event for the village.
