Belleville Playground
The Belleville Playground project was part of a consultation process carried out by CODEJ (Comité pour le Dévelop- pement de l’Espace pour le Jeu / Committee for the development of recreation areas) in 2003. Workshops for child- ren and adults (oral, written and graphic expressions) made it possible to fine-tune the wishes of the area residents and identify the project’s design objectives.
Our work then consisted of synthetising and interpreting the public’s expectations to provide a spatial response both original yet true to the vision of the residents.
Development of the imaginary Free-flowing and powerful, the imagination of a child does not need determinate symbols and play objects to thrive . The design for the playground is inspired by a structure that we have all played in, a game as spontaneous as it is timeless, taking on multiple forms and played in groups by children of all ages: the playhouse. The playhouse can take on many forms: treehouse, cave, cabin, etc. There is also an urban version, built inside and which works just as well, meant for rainy days, sleepovers and lazy Sunday afternoons. It is built from scratch from couch pillows, or by propping a mattress along the bed frame, or with a chair, broom sticks and stretched bath towels . It can be a boat, a tent or a medieval castle, it suits all interpretations and abstractions: it is intelligent and provides a blank canvas for the imagination.
With this in mind, the resulting form of the playground overlays many familiar landscape types, evoked through abs- tracted forms that recall a mountain landscape, construction site, flying carpet, ramparts and medieval fortifications, pirate ship scuppers, etc.
Located on a steeply-sloped site, the playground area is a climbing course with different inclinations for different levels of difficulty and different age groups. Open since 2008, there have been no reports of injury despite its chal- lenging nature, with record-breaking numbers of children playing here since its realisation.
