Tyrannosaurus Recs
Horsham’s New Recreation Facilities Bring Dinosaurs Back to Life
eibe Play has been working with tourist attractions, district
councils and schools for the last two decades. Effecting
inventive children’s playspaces featuring imaginative designs
and unique, long-lasting products is the reason we exist.
Everything we do – it’s just child’s play!
Building on the successes of other high profile projects at Kew
Gardens, Paulton’s Park and LEGOLAND, eibe was thrilled to win
a £140,000 contract to install a very special park in West Sussex
this summer.
'Dinosaur Island' is a brand new adventure play area for
Horsham Country Park. The previously run-down recreation
space now features an array of fantastic play equipment and
special effects such as an active volcano, red hot lava flows, a
tar quagmire, a dinosaur swamp and a prehistoric jungle. It is a
delightful themed playspace that commemorates a past age. It
is sure to keep children entertained for many years in the future.
Paul Redden, eibe’s managing director, believes the choice of
equipment by Horsham District Council was critical in terms of
appealing to a diversification of ages:
“Toddlers through to teenagers can use the park. For the older
kids, there’s the zip wire across lizard infested ditches and a
really exciting aerial walkway along sheer slopes to look out
over the Country Park lake. The small ones will love crossing the
dinosaur bones and deadly swampland. Even the parents will
enjoy swinging through the j ungle and climbing the volcano!”
The important specification of products stemmed from
consultations with local schools. The key stakeholders in
the Eastern Shires Procurement Organisation (ESPO) tender
then deliberated, and taking on board the feedback from
the children, opted for eibe’s innovative proposal. It was our
uniqueness of products that stole the show, mixed with our
empathy in mirroring the council’s own mission to regenerate
the area and theme it in a natural way, thus creating a
destination park that would ultimately entertain and educate.
The initial concept was a 3D Masterpiece created by design
director David Hibberd and his team.
76 Landscape & Urban Design Issue 15
So began the detailed design stage. Many tweaks and
adjustments were made to the first draft.
“Working in harmony with Deborah Mallard, the council’s
landscape architect, we had to take into account the contours
and landscaping of the park,” says Hibberd, “Being mindful of the
standards of foundations needed for our high duty equipment
was a design imperative. Several visits were necessary to plot the
slopes, paths and natural swales. Back in the studio, we adapted
our designs accordingly. An accompanying video had a huge
impact with the client.”
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www.eibe.co.uk