Play Centre, Landseer Park

Ipswich Borough Councils Children’s Play Service aims to provide local children and young people with access to a range play provision that is safe, supervised, stimulating, and fun. In 2002 Barefoot & Gilles were selected to produce a new play centre for the Service in the Gainsborough district of Ipswich, and developed the design for the building in collaboration with the staff of playworkers who would operate the building.

The site for the play centre represented a particularly challenging environment; the building needed to be overtly welcoming yet discreetly vandal proof. A monopitch, asymmetric roof and window openings are all overlooked and supervised from the play area and neighbouring buildings. This successful project is an example of Barefoot & Gilles’ client responsiveness; in a particularly demanding site we were able to produce a building that continues to work well.