THE GIANT OWLS
Kristineberg Slottspark is located in the city of Stockholm and encompasses a large area where you'll find the castle of Kristineberg, Kristineberg School, a park, and apartment blocks.
As part of a plan to develop the area, MONSTRUM was asked to design several playgrounds to be located along a long, narrow area near the school and the park. The desire was to modernize the park and to attract more families.
Next to the owls there are a large cluster of huge mushrooms growing. Ropes and bars connect all the mushrooms - some easy to climb, others difficult. There's a challenge for all ages here.
The slide in the largest mushroom begins at a height of 2.3 meters. It is one meter wide, offering space for two children in action at a time. In addition, there is a large carrousel mushroom ready to spin with one passenger or more.
The mushroom is designed like a carrousel. The kids can hold onto the steel tube and twirl around.
FLORA AND FAUNA FOR ALL AGES
Among the trees, bushes and branches of the area of Kristineberg Slottspark, you can find rare species of ants and beetles. Between the cluster of oak trees lies a dispersal corridor, a route connecting different groups of wildlife, otherwise separated by human activities or structures, such as roads or buildings.
We wanted to tell the story of the hidden wildlife. Transforming the area into a crawling habitat by supersizing the small world to expose it and to turn reality upside down, making huge that, which is normally tiny.
The playground is ‘alive’ and moving with both fauna and flora. Mushrooms, flowers, and leaves are placed among the animals. Beside the beetles, earwigs, and ants, there are two owls overseeing the area - the crowned king and queen of the habitat, both 5.5 meters tall. The interior of the owls offers different levels, stairs, and ladders to climb on. If the children want to play the chimes on the queen owl they do so by pressing the buttons on its side.
CREEPING CRAWLING CREATURES
The nights are long during the half-year of winter in Scandinavia. The shortest day is darkened from 3:00 in the afternoon until 9:00 the next morning. The playground is designed with integrated lighting to make play after sunset possible and also add a theatrical mood and feeling of the wildlife crawling out from its hideaway and coming to life at night.
