We took a field trip to visit five parks throughout Denver in order to expose students to different design approaches. The students toured the parks and reflected on key difference between each one. We took photos and identified aspects of the park that did and didn’t work well.

We asked students to reflect on their experience by journaling about what they were most impacted by during the park visits.

We partnered with Design Workshop to identify what type of play structures the students would like in their neighborhoods. Using our City as Play activity, we constructed play spaces using arts and crafts to develop a conceptual model. These models allowed us to explore potential real life solutions to the community needs we identified.

Using all of the research from our park visits, combined with the models the kids created during the City as Play activity and design workshop, we built a pop-up playground that featured several of the students’ top choices and design ideas. The canopy bridge included 11 planks with the names of each of the students and the planks were given to the students at their 5th grade graduation as souvenirs.

We are so thrilled that the City has agreed to use the students’ designs as inspiration for a new playground, coming to Swansea Park the summer of 2019. Stay tuned for more updates as the playground develops!