PLAYscapes Competition Results Announced

© Winning Student Team, Lusiada University of Lisbon

Written by James Taylor-Foster
Published on October 13, 2013

"People tend to forget that play is serious." - David Hockney

PLAYscapes, an international design competition launched earlier this year asking people to "submit a plan or proposal to turn a neglected forgotten part of your city into a playscape," has announced their winning entries. Set up by Building Trust International, the competition called for "professional and student architects and designers from cities around the world to propose ideas which encouraged public interaction and turned redundant city spaces into fun creative places."

Find out more about the winning professional entry from the City of Cape Town, entitled Cape Town Gardens Skatepark, along with the winning student entry from the Lusiada University of Lisbon, entitled Bring a Pal and Have Fun, after the break...

Winner Professional Category: Cape Town Gardens Skatepark / City of Cape Town

© City of Cape Town, C2C Consulting Engineers & Spyda Ramps

Gardens, "a residential neighborhood of Cape Town situated south of the Central Business District and at the foot of Table Mountain," is the location of an "eyesore" for years. The vacant public space there has since been transformed by this project, which hopes to "set precedent for the use of many of the vacant spaces below City of Cape Town Bridges and off-ramps." Described as being "intelligent in its re-use of space transforming an under used and blighted underpass into a community led skate park," Cape Town Gardens Skatepark is intended to be "a flagship project which will stimulate the proliferation of similar initiatives across the metropolitan region and cities in South Africa".

The City of Cape Town team comprised of Gerrit Strydom, Lwandile Gcume and Aline Cremon, along with Errol van Amsterdam and Marvin Fester from C2C Consulting Engineers, and Clive Crofton from Spyda Ramps.

Winner Student Category: Bring a Pal and Have Fun / Lusiada University of Lisbon

Described as showing "the versatility and reinvention of space is constant, depending on the use or need." the team initially "redeveloped the space, building furniture with euro pallets" (a sturdy, inexpensive and accessible material). According to the student team, "providing an organized space allows the community to build upon the existing arrangements or create new ones." The project has been "designed to showcase the community and the history of the space" in a "self-sustaining, locally managed" way which constantly evolves.

The team consisted of Ricardo Alves Morais, Ivo Castro Nascimento, João Maria Bebiano Peixe, Diogo Baeta Neves dos Anjos, and Rúben de Sousa Teodoro from the Faculty of Architecture and Arts, Lusiada University of Lisbon.

David Cole, founding partner of Building Trust international said, “The competition was a huge success, the winning project had an incredible level of thought and community involvement. The potential for this project to become a flagship in regenerating other areas in both Cape Town and other cities is exciting and we look forward to helping realise the project over the coming months.”

Honourable Mention Professional Category: Plant a Ball Parks / OP-AL (USA)