EcoPlaygrounds Guatemala

IT IS URGENT TO BUILD AND HAVE PLAYGROUNDS. Play in the early years of life has a profound and lasting influence on a child’s health, wellbeing, and long-term development. Studies have shown early play experiences to shape a child’s physical growth, capacity for learning, chances of finishing school, future employability, and even income...

- From The Case of Play by www.playgroundideas.org

To see videos of the process see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA37-4NtX8Y&t=20s

and the Slide-a-saurus process see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvtRvevzUio

To play will prepare kids to an ever changing society where their choices will represent the society they will build, and they´re gonna be able to return in many different ways when their skills develop into adulthood.

All of the 5 playgrounds I´ve built where designed fundamentally under integration with the site, use of the local materials as much as possible, saving resources and priorizing benefit for the children by stimulating learning in different areas, also always taking on account the population and it´s age.

Playgrounds demand to be sustainable. For maintenance and for them to be safe on a long term basis, therefore they must be discussed, design and built along with a school community or a neighborhood.

Inclusive design involves the community in many ways: from the kids for the design, teachers organizing alumni and parents who also discuss, volunteer and donate to families cooking something for the opening ceremony.

ECO Playgrounds

24 games displayed on 2559 square feet of land designed with the slope and trees existing on site. Ciudad Vieja, Sacatepéquez Guatemala 2019	Wooden platform on tree, wooden climber with motorbike tires, bars, rings and store front made with recycled metal structure	Eco Slide. Original Ecocabezas creation. Metal structure filled with construction crumbs and tires, then wrapped with metal wire mesh.	9 feet wide Ecoslide, finished with a 2inch cement layer.
Tire step filled with soil and sand for Ecoslide	Side tire climber bolted to metal pipe and to the trees	Truck tire see-saw and mini-maze	mini maze with tires
Dragon. Balance-Fantasy game made with tires	Fun Group Hammok made with high endurance fishing net.	fun Cable Spool game	Tire tent Climber
Baby swings made with motorbike tires on metal pieces fixed to trees	Plastic barrel tunnel	Original Ecocabezas design made from construction crumbs and tires, 4 cement quintals, iron grid and wire mesh.	Structural design, bamboo and labor Donated by CASSA
Handmade hanging games	Desing adjusted to site conditions and existing trees	Sign to give credit to donors.	Existing tire game adapted to become a turtle. 4 way see-saw
11 games, some original, some adapted to site conditions and inclusive process.	Designed after inclusive process with the kids, then approved by community

	eco built slide made of construction crumbles inside metal mesh and a layer of colored cement


			finised Tree Hugger, rings and see saw
Using the land conditions and trees	ladders and rings plus jumping tires		This playground was a result of a long creative process by Arki-kids. They hired me to accomplish the design and construction of the playground. Along with the help of several volunteers who worked.
we recycled these donated cable spools and painted them, nailed them together so kids can climb on them	5meter long Ferrocement Slide	Children painted the tires and wood of the games
all tires painted and polished concrete finish for best performance due to hill moisture	these where figures that the children asked for	tires are always fun to climb	Climbable or to seat inside. Welded Bike rings
we edited the initial idea to make it better
	made by blacksmith, put together for better endurance		to build the rope climbing net
rings made of bike tires are fun



	87 feet long Earthbag Hill Slide. Ironworks reinforced Earthbag walls with anti-seismic buttresses. Exterior concrete layer and tile for water resistance.	Exterior Mural paint and tires as steps on both sides	Mural Paint
From the mouth opening	Entry	Side Elevation	Areal view
First out of Four Earthbag rows (Antonio Balam, co- designer, builder)	Earthbagging lenght completed	Ironworks as reinforcement and buttresses detail	soil base plus reinforced mesh and gravel stone as insulation layer . Iron hoops for concrete
Starting head Ironworks	1/8" ironworks, strainer to make surface even and cement grout	plywood to make 7cm concrete casting	concrete grout
5th Eco playground designed and built along with the school community Patzizia Chimaltenango. Finished by May 2015 with the help of Matt Green and Playground Ideas	Slide-a-saurus Rex; requested by the kids during the inclusive design process. Earthbag, soil, tile and tires and iron to hold the neck	Earthbagging to be filled with soil, then concrete protective layer and then tile to slide.	The houses, also children´s request made with steel tubes and wood.
Tire worm for the youngsters, oil paint for color and fun	Marimba players, playground users.	4th playground designed and built along with the school community at Chimaltenango, finished May 2014 Joint effort by Ukuxbe & Imagitlán. Tire Turtle requested by kids during the inclusive design process	Tire dragon-fly for toddlers
Tile Earthbag Slide made with the colaboration of Ulew Atitlan and voluneers, filled with gravel and soil	Earthbag slide, protective concrete layer and tiles	Finished slide, with concrete curb to define 3 lanes and tires as steps	4 way monkey bars welded and painted with anticorrosive paint. Made by hired blacksmith
Swing set made with steel tubes, anticorrosive paint tires and stainless steel chain.	Climbing rope games knitted by volunteers	4 way seesaw made with treated wood and truck tires.	Garden House made with welded bike rims and anticorrosive paint
Gathering area for ceremonies and reunions, seating made with assorted sizes of tires	The site conditions where used to benefit the design, the whole playground is about 550 tires.	1st eco playground designed and built along with the school communityof Sta Catarina Ixtahuacán, Sololá Finished February 2012. I was in charge of the inclusive design process, coordination, budget elaboration, quotation and purchase of materials, construction guidance and labor. The Playground process was an effort shared with Licda. Giglia Cannesa and Asociación Vivamos Mejor	Metal barrel games finely finished for safety
Assorted games	4 way seesaw made with wood and tires	Starting Eartbag House with the help of Ulew Atitlan	Inside earthbag house
Earthbag house with concrete protective layer	Earthbag house painted with Nopal Paint as a waterproofing protective layer	Earthbag house is a tunnel as an entry, a firemen tube and a metal slide to go down and steps to go back up	2nd eco playground designed and built along with the school communityof Sta Catarina Ixtahuacán, Sololá Finished February 2012. I was in charge of the inclusive design process, coordination, budget elaboration, quotation and purchase of materials, construction guidance and labor. The Playground process was an effort shared with Licda. Giglia Cannesa and Asociación Vivamos Mejor
This time the site was much smaller so the Earthbag house is smaller too.	Assorted simple tire games		Artistic concrete works made by volunteers of the community under Ulew Atitlán´s guidance
4 way seesaw made with wood and tires	1st eco playground designed and built along with the school communityof Sta Catarina Ixtahuacán, Sololá Finished February 2012. I was in charge of the inclusive design process, coordination, budget elaboration, quotation and purchase of materials, construction guidance and labor. The Playground process was an effort shared with Licda. Giglia Cannesa and Asociación Vivamos Mejor	Earthbag house window	Earthbag house with concrete layer for protection
Artistic Concrete works made by volunteers form the community under Ulew Atitlán´s guidance.	15 feet Metal slide built to adapt to the house	Earthbag house painted with Nopal Paint as a waterproofing protective layer	Fireman tube being used. Inside of the house decorated by the locals with Nopal paint