Europa park

Project: PARTICIPATION PROCESS WITH STUDENTS FOR THE PROPOSAL OF USES AND ACTIVITIES IN THE EUROPA PARK

Location: Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain)

Year| Duration:  october-november 2017

Clients: Municipality of Bilbao

Context and goal of the project

Given the outdated and deterioration state of some playgrounds in the city, the municipality of Bilbao decided to renew the playground of Europa park by giving their youngest citizen the chance to rethink and imagine their playground.

Our approach

The participation was carried during school timetable. Thus, the participants were the pupils of the schools that are located in the park’s neighbourhood. 

METHODOLOGY

The process was structured in 4 phases:

• Information: The goal of this phase is to make them reflect about the Europa park, the site they would be rethinking. Children needed to understand where it is and feel their familiarity with the place. 

Afterwards, some guideline-themes that have an importance in the playgrounds were introduced, such as Nature and sustainability, Sports, Urban furniture and Technology. 

Given the restrictions on the playgrounds’ design due to the need of homologation, some doable examples were shown to the children, in order to prevent them from creating undoable expectations.

• Walk in the park. Facilitators walked the site with the children. The goal was to make children brainstorm on how they live the place and what their needs and desires are for it. The activity is a kind of a scavenger hunt. 

• Drawn proposals once that children were put in context and had brainstormed, they were asked to draw their proposal on a black-white photograph of the previous state of the playground. 

• Explanation . Finally, children were asked to explain their drawings in front of their classmates. 

Results

More than XXX children took  part in the participation process. As a result, the facilitators and technicians got in an excell a clear consensus of what children wanted for their new playground.

Thus, the playground was built following their need and desires, and the comparison between the drawing and the reality speaks for itself.