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
and the Slide-a-saurus process see
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. |
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 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 |  |  |
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 |  eco built slide made of construction crumbles inside metal mesh and a layer of colored cement |  |  |
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| | |  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 |  |  |  |
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 |  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 |