Hpkid Indoor Kids Playground

Press Kit

Unique Properties

It tries to provide a space not only to encourage children to play and learn, but to free children’s imagination and to allow creative interaction with abstract geometry, instead of with figures and motifs created for children. It is inspired by nature, the universe and hills. Digital modeling techniques have been used to test the geometry.

Dimensions & Packaging

The site has a total area of 1200 Sq.mt.

Tags

playground, interior, kid, children, education

Production Technology

The design team participated in furthering the design of the grid support system within the Cosmos zone. The collaboration with GRG, the manufacturer, helped to develop the method of construction by steel plates and also a grooving system to complete the insertions. At the same time, a complex coding system was applied to the steel pieces to indicate the position of each steel plate in the whole system. The final achievement was a set of laser cutting diagrams. The production model file and the CAD file were edited in two layers, the cutting layer and the laser layer. The coding system was directly etched on to the corresponding steel plates by a low-energy laser, which was a great convenience for on-site construction.

Design Challenge

The difficulty of construction mainly arose from the broken and split shapes after the fillet operation. The huge orbit belts fly in the air, which means that the weight of the exterior cover is wholly supported by the suspended skeleton. The necessary hanging ribs provide auxiliary support and stability in the large spans. A set of digital-control drawings of the colourful ground paving is also mapped by 3D computer design, to ensure the accuracy of installation.

Project Duration

The project started in April 2018 in Beijing and construction finished in May 2019 in Wuhan, and went into operation in Wuhan in mid-2019.

Operation Flow

The disappearance of urban natural spaces, brought about by consumerism and urbanization, isolates children from nature. This project attempts to give children a chance to reconnect with nature. They can enter the hall, run on the hillside and pass through the caves, exploring the different depths. Some caves are connected, and children can climb up and down through them.

Research

The transformationbetween shapes is anotherfocus of this design. Unless the geometry of the transfer surface is specifically defined by programming, the fillet command will connect the two adjacent faces by a face composed of circular arcs.With the adjustment ofthefilletradius, the relationship between the radius and the distance between the two surfaces, and the categories of the two surfaces themselves, this seemingly simpleoverlapping relationship can bring about several changes in form andcreate a different psychological experience.

Inspiration

The HP Kid Space project tries to propose its own opinions on the above issues. The design started from observing a social phenomenon and gives a possible outside-the-box solution. The intention was to help children to develop their consciousness and bodies without reference to the common motifs that adults have created for them.

Image Credits

image: Hanqi Li

Colors of Hpkid Indoor Kids Playground