BOY AND THE CROCODILE PLAYGROUND
In 2014, I led a team to win the EWB Challenge, competing against the top engineering universities in the U.K. The challenge was to design child friendly spaces/ playground equipment using local materials available to the people of Codo in East Timor.
Researching the social, economic and cultural aspects of East Timor, I found out that their main concern was to . After my project was picked to go ahead and compete for the competition, I arranged a team together and together we worked on the technical feasibility document and presentation for the finals competition in Durham.
The playground is meant to evoke a link to East Timor’s past, a starting point that will help to start conversation about their specific culture. However, the link is not meant to be overbearing as to make the playground too much of a learning area that the children will not want to use it. Furthermore, everything on the play park needed to feel different to a standard Western playground, as I believe they will feel it is unique to them and therefore they will have a sense of ownership over it.
Made completely out of sustainable bamboo and lashings, the same used for building their houses. This was important, as they had a bamboo industry in place, meaning the playground would help their economy by providing more jobs, specifically to the younger generation.
Taking part in this competition was amazing and lead to us going to Mexico to attend attend a 17-day international training course entitled Analysing Earth Friendly Technologies: Studying Context, Culture and Design.
In addition, I also wrote a briefing paper for the Institution of Civil Engineers entitled: "Briefing: Infusing culture into a playground to aid engineering design" DOI: