Pirates Playground

Pirates Playground was a project designed specifically for Durweston School. The brief was to create a replacement bike storage shed, as their existing one was falling apart and was unorganised.

As their play area was not massive, it was important to prioritise space management. As a result, I designed a playground for the children to use, whilst providing storage space below for their bikes. This increased the footprint of the play area, whilst providing a new barrier to the road so children would not run out into the road.

Main features include; weather-resistant bike and toy storage, a slide, rock climbing wall, telescope, steering wheel, portholes, sheltered play area, raised decking play area and a rain dispersal layer beneath the desk.

This solution was designed to create something fun for the children out of a straightforward brief. This project relied on donations to be made possible back in 2017-18 and is still being used today.

Concepts & Models

First concepts and models were basic and didn’t convey how fun a playground area should be. The pirate ship idea came about when realising how much space was being used because of the size of the bikes.

Barn Side Profile

Development

Obviously the idea of a full scale pirate ship with a sail is preposterous, but a dialled back version could be achieved.

It was designed to be made from panelled sections, with an internal support structure.

Pirate ship influences were added to make the structure appear more like a ship, despite its straight forward structure.

The main problem to solve was the decking/roof of the storage area and preventing water build up.

Here, I designed an angled roof with supports to allow the decking above to be screwed in, creating a horizontal play surface.

Workshop Build

Made over the course of a few months, the playground was hand made and designed to be dismantled for transport.

Lip - To prevent water from entering the storage area

Structure Painted and Full Assembly Completed