Children's Playground,  Mock-up Model 

Rooftop Playground for Children's Hospital(La Fe Hospital) in Valencia, Spain

Installation for Cornell University Homecoming, 2014

Cornell University, Ithaca New York

Garden Escape

The idea started after looking for cheerful and friendly materials for children. Pool noodles are colorful cylindrical pieces of foam used for learning to swim or aquatic playing. The playground will be built from these noodles. Noodles can be easily cut and bounded transforming into seats, slopes, fences, and a maze, which will resemble a corn field of varying heights. The standard noodle dimension is 5’3” or 1.6M in length and comes in two diameters: 2.5” (6cm) and 3.5” (9cm). They will be cut into different lengths and bunched in groups of seven, creating modules.

The pool noodle topography creates a number of spaces for various activities not only for children but also for parents and doctors in the hospital. Children are encouraged and inspired to explore and interact with this colorful playground. 

Two typologies of the design are tested in the full scale prototype: a seating area and a play maze. The shape and height of topography are rearranged to show many different possibilities. The seating area will consist of a slope for leaning and enclosed amphitheater-like steps with a low fence. The area encourages a diverse range of activities such as sitting and climbing on the noodles as well as crawling underneath noodle overhangs. In other parts, noodles will be spread out to represent a cornfield or reed field, with long and narrow pool noodles wiggling in the breeze.