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.
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​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.
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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: