Putting play in the clouds, this rooftop playscape offers pint-sized tykes a safe place to scamper in the city.
Soaring high above the city of Kangaroo Point in Queensland, a predominantly timber playspace offers urban adventures for teetering toddlers that has them cavorting in the clouds atop the Valencia Residences. This luxury apartment highrise by Aria promises high-value urban living with the feel of ‘home’.
Close to the river and surrounded by convenient retail and commercial offerings, the Valencia caters to families of all shapes and sizes. The building provides a host of conveniences for residents from an outdoor pool to a cinema room, onsite gym and function rooms for hire, and even a rooftop playspace.
Built by playscape specialists Rhinoplay, the custom playspace sits atop the roof deck, affording visitors magnificent views over the city. When the developers wanted to create a unique play area for families living in the building, they commissioned Rhinoplay to design, engineer, manufacture and install a bespoke play area on the challenging site.
With its rippling façade, the Valencia Residences makes an iconic statement on the Brisbane skyline. In keeping with the building aesthetics, the clients wanted a playspace that would match the existing design elements of the building’s architecture. In this way, the design would ensure a fluid connection among the compositional parts of the public spaces at play across the rooftop. In addition, the playspace needed to fit perfectly into the footprint of the building, and provide a safe, fun and unforgettable play adventure for young residents.
Working closely with the clients to ensure adherence to the brief, Rhinoplay designed a play structure that features a tunnel slide, shop front cubby, internal climber, telescopes and access bridge. Given the challenges of the site — namely sitting over 13-storeys high — the playspace needed to provide access from two levels, work around planned landscaping elements, and be manufactured in a way that allowed it to be crane lifted onto the roof of the building.
Requiring enormous attention to detail to ensure design continuity, the main play elements were manufactured from mild steel and clad in dressed and oiled spotted gum. Matching materials, finishes and colour palette were employed to ensure the building and the playspace coexisted harmoniously, including the play tower’s roof, which sports a perforated profile to match existing design elements found throughout the building.
Still an uncommon fixture in today’s highrise residential developments, the unique nature of the Valencia Residences rooftop playground sets a new standard for urban living that proves you don’t have to sacrifice play value to aesthetics.
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PROJECT PARTICULARS
Client Aria
Location Kangaroo Point, Queensland
Architect Rothelowman
Contractor McNab
Design & Install Rhinoplay
COMPANY
Rhinoplay
Website
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