A very special opening day for Maidstone Max Playground - Tō Tātou Papa Tākaro
Leith McFadden - Playground People Director
The new Maidstone Max Playground - Tō Tātou Papa Tākaro at Maidstone Park in Upper Hutt was opened to the public on Saturday, 22nd of May. In the very early stages of the project the Upper Hutt City Council design team - Upper Hutt City Council, Rich Landscapes and Playground People - discussed the possibility of holding an open day just for local children with special needs. Doing this would be a great way to show that the Maidstone Max playground had been designed with them in mind; this playground will be their playground too. We also needed to acknowledge that many children with additional needs have compromised immune systems, so navigating a large popular playground safely can be very difficult for them, especially on a crowded opening day.
Upper Hutt City Council followed through on this idea and invited the children and their families of three local special needs schools to an exclusive open morning prior to the official opening, on Friday 21st of May.
Playground People were fortunate enough to be there and it was one of the best opening days we have had the pleasure of attending. Seeing the smiles on the children’s faces as they were able to explore the entire park and engage in truly free play is something we will never forget. The children were able to have a go on all the equipment (sometimes by themselves and sometimes with assistance), and the usability of the playground as whole exceeded our expectations.
Children and young adults in wheelchairs were able to access the top of the mound and enjoy the play features we had placed on the different levels. Watching and hearing their laughter as they were zoomed around the pump track was a real joy.
Franziska Ravera, Special Educational Needs Coordinator at Fraser Crescent School said:
My little group of students had a wonderful experience - so much so that a number of them did not want to go back to school. It was uplifting to see what potential the playground experience opened up for them - a willingness to give new things a go and explore, presenting "actors/dancer/musicians" to an audience, allowing them to be presented and taking a bow, collaborating and playing together in the sandpit , collaborating on the musical instruments, looking out for others on the various equipment, helping them onto the equipment and encouraging them, and just having blissful fun!
We will definitely be back many more times. I have had to promise we will visit Maidstone Max again before the holiday.
The pathway to accessibility and inclusion
One of the key requirements of Upper Hutt City Council’s design brief was that it needed to have a focus on accessibility and inclusion. When designing a destination playground of national significance, we felt a duty to make sure a new benchmark for what is considered inclusive and accessible was set. Hence, the design team decided to make inclusion along with maximising play value the two primary considerations of the design. From the beginning, everything included in the design was viewed through the lens of ’Is this going to provide the most fun for everyone who visits Maidstone Max playground?’
Our key accessibility considerations were guided by the Six Universal Playground Design Points established by the Kompan Play Institute in Denmark (you can learn more about these in Kompan’s Play For All: Universal Design for Inclusive Playgrounds document).
Making sure users of all abilities can simply get to the play features is half the battle with accessibility, and landscape design is the key to this. One of the existing features of Maidstone Max was the iconic pyramid-shaped mound and the playground’s centre piece – the Kompan Castle - takes pride of place on top of it. To make sure the Castle and the elevated area could be enjoyed by everyone, Landscape Architect Richard Smith designed an arcing ramp which makes the top of the mound accessible from both sides of the playground. The additional levelling around the central mound allows for more of the play features to be elevated above the rest of the playground, adding to the fun. While the Castle itself is not accessible to every child, adults can access the upper levels to assist children on elevated activities like the Castle rope bridges. Extensive use of wet-pour matting throughout the play area gives access to all of the equipment including matting pathways through wood chip and sand areas.
The design team wanted to guarantee maximum play value and providing a huge range of play experiences for different age groups across the park is a great way to do this. Maidstone Max Playground has swinging, rocking, spinning, sliding, climbing, imagination play, experimenting, sensory play, bouncing, balancing, swaying, crawling…the list goes on. All of it is accessible.
Having play activity at ground level is crucial to inclusive play. Ground level friendly equipment was selected for most of the play areas including: all of the equipment in the junior and sand play areas, accessible swings and activity panels in the in castle area, the two-metre-wide embankment slide, wheel chair carousel and music play equipment - all at ground level.
Thrilling and challenging play activity attracts everyone and is essential for destination playgrounds. The skateable, all-wheel features in the play area have already proven to provide enormous fun for users in wheelchairs as we discovered on the special opening day. Many of the children and young adults in wheelchairs spent hours racing around the pump track. All of the dynamic play items – seesaws, swings, carousels - are exciting and readily accessible.
These dynamic play items also foster group play which is so important for children with disabilities - being able to join their peers on a carousel or swing is one of the more meaningful play experiences for them. Similarly, the sand play equipment in the junior area encourages collaborative and experiential play for all children, and careful placement of the wet-pour matting allows the sand play structures to be accessed by children with mobility issues.
The melodic Percussion Play music instruments in the Bard’s Compass area invite people from all over the park to come and join the fun. These instruments are perfect fostering inter-generational play too!
The design team also worked on the provision of pathways, seating, shade, an additional toilet block, sheltered accessible picnic tables and bbqs, and open grassed areas for family picnics. All of these amenities are crucial for ensuring the needs of all users of the park are met during their extended visits.
We learned a great deal through the collaborative design process with Upper Hutt City Council and Rich Landscapes. Seeing the accessible features of the park being brought to life lets us know that putting the extra effort into these details was greatly appreciated and well worth the effort.
We highly recommend any organisation creating a playground where there is a particular focus on all abilities play, to plan for an open day for children with additional needs and their families. Many of these children have become accustomed to watching the fun from afar, so an open day especially for them is relatively easy to organise and is the perfect way to show that your playground is for them too.
Special thanks to Lisa Noy for the use of her great photos from our very fun opening day.