Play Workshop is a firm of creatives, play makers and builders. We enjoy tackling new nature play projects which we approach with a view to use sustainable, reclaimed or recyclable timbers where possible.
We are passionate about providing natural play experiences. A seemingly simple set of our log steppers can provide a dynamic play item while children can determine their own play adventure.
We believe that one of the most responsible actions we can take is to work with materials that have a long lifespan and that can be recycled at the end of their life.
Working with materials that are sustainable is core to our business beliefs and vision. Play Workshop is proud to work with Future Forests, an innovative sustainability scheme for the timber industry. We support the Future Forests commitment to re-planting Australian trees on private land across the country.
It was with this philosophy and approach that we designed, manufactured and installed a recent project for Macquarie College at Wallsend in NSW. Macquarie College is an independent school for children from pre-school through to senior school.
The brief was to create a nature-based space that encouraged children to move in a variety of ways, promoted risk taking and encouraged problem solving. Macquarie College was looking for natural play items, loose parts play items and structures that would allow for imaginative play and risk taking. The space was aimed at five to 10 year olds but it also needed to be a play area that all ages could have fun using. Macquarie College appreciated that Play Workshop is a business that shares their play values – being nature based, risk taking, problem solving and seeing the play space as a learning space also.
The service provided by Play Workshop is very much tailored to the client’s needs, being happy to engage in conversations regarding the design and any adjustments along the way. The aim being to ensure that there is a mutually agreed plan that meets the client’s needs. The final design is actually very close to the original plan as time was spent to fully understand the brief up front. To deliver the brief, Play Workshop designed an innovative, natural play space that the children are loving.
An interesting feature of the design is that Play Workshop utilised reclaimed timber that was sourced from an unused shed on a property at Llandilo in Western Sydney that would have otherwise been destined to be destroyed and disposed of. This old shed now has now found a new life providing joy for years to come as a natural play space.
