SU06ROMANIA

SU06ROMANIA. ORADEA, ROMANIA.
COMMUNAL PLAY | a PLAYSCAPE for ABANDONED CHILDREN

During the building abroad program of 2006, IDC students (in partnership with the Study Abroad Program at UL Lafayette) traveled to Oradea, Romania where they worked with local craftspeople to design and build a playground for abandoned or at-risk children. Wanting to build off the success of their spring semester work, the team worked diligently before leaving to uncover a method of working with commonly discarded materials.

However, upon arriving in Oradea, the team quickly discovered that this would simply not be possible. The Romanian culture, having endured years of poverty, discarded little that might be of later use. This made it virtually impossible for the team to find scraps, even in the smallest quantities. Sensibly, the students quickly abandoned their initial stand and worked to find a new method of working.

The answer to their search was found in an unlikely place. A few days after arriving in Oradea (time spent in failed attempts scavenging), the team discovered that a local business had excess topsoil they would send for the cost of transport. Having no idea how this material would be used in the design response, the team nevertheless jumped at the opportunity and asked to have as much topsoil as possible. The piles of dirt which resulted would eventually become the cornerstone for the design response, giving birth to not only an elaborate play landscape for the children served by the client but a new method of working.

Rather than design for scrap, the team would dedicate their efforts to uncover that which could be obtained for the cost of transport. Then, as the trucks delivering rocks, pebbles, or broken bits of concrete rumbled to the site, the team would create ways to use their new found treasures to create the environment requested by the client.

The waste-reducing culture of Romania inspired the team in other ways as well. First, the team decided that every structure within the play environment would serve as many functions as possible: the table for communal meals would double as a castle for the children when meals were not served, the mounds of earth which provided a play landscape would also provide elevated gardens that could be tended by mothers in the final trimester of pregnancy, the fence to protect the children from the working of the farm beyond would also become a fort.

In similar fashion, posts, beams, and cladding were also used to serve multiple functions whenever possible, minimizing the amount of materials that had to be bought, finished and installed, while simultaneously eliminating unneeded clutter from a fairly dense play environment.

Finally, existing items which had either been discarded by the organization (wood scraps) or were made obsolete by the new play environment (the existing swingset) were given new life in a manner that spoke to both the ambition of the client and the culture they intended to serve.

Although this method was somewhat presumptuous (generally speaking, the team had no idea how they were going to use the materials prior to their arrival) and did lead to some inefficiencies in the construction process (as the design shifted to accommodate previously unknown materials), it nevertheless proved to be quite successful, allowing the team to complete not only the play area requested by the client, but a massive overhaul of the entire site. In the process, they provided a clear demonstration of the value of overlooked material - a fitting tribute to a client who had dedicated their lives to help those abandoned by society find a new start.