We play in playgrounds, but experience of working with people who create the playground was an humble experience. An opportunity to experience, creating a physical outdoor playspace – How a playground can be created, How one can design, How one can implement, How one skill can open up the doors of opportunity and how one can work in a highly professional environment.
Well, within 3 minutes of reaching the Malur site, we had paint brush in our hands to start painting the container. We didn’t expect such fast speed of work, meeting Marcus was amazing and truly professional experience. Noone spent time in knowing about our style of schooling (oh! open schooling), no one commented on size of our kids (oh! Small kids) or no one doubted that these kids could work on painting/tools (oh! Too small), noone treated us like a child (oh! cannot do). We were expected to do the work and that all! Everyone around us was working, and knowing what they were working on.
The project led by Marcus Veerman, CEO and co-founder of Playground Ideas (www.playgroundideas.org). Marcus has supported over 2000 communities in 143 countries to create playgrounds and parks for over 1 million children. Thanks to Ratrace, a UK Marathon company for donating the container, funding the shipping cost and supplying UK staff in India to help build the playground. This practical yet informal day to get an exposure to ideas and tools for designing amazing play spaces.
It was a humble experience to spend a day with the entire team. Some kids were mesmerised with designs while some with the tools.
I left wondering “For such level of precise working, the amount of background work must have been HUGE”. And “just one skill of “using tyres to make playground equipments” needed so many other skills to build (mastery of material, tools, designs, techniques), and “just developing one skill” of “designing playground with tyres” can be so fulfilling! And “just one skill” can be career choice!