INTERVIEW WITH AMY CUMMING ON CITY OF CASEY’S PLAYGROUND RENEWAL PROJECT

As part of the City of Casey’s annual playground renewal program, adventure+ was engaged to design several unique playgrounds for multiple playspaces. adventure+ interviewed Amy Cumming from the council to find out more about the process and challenges in these projects.

A+. Why did you choose to work with adventure+ on these projects and how was your experience?

AC. The City of Casey and adventure+ have worked together for many years now and have built a solid working relationship whereby projects are designed and constructed, with ease, on time and within budget. It is the consistent support from all of the team at adventure+, initially during the quotation phase, through negotiation and award of projects, to onsite construction and certificate of completion, issue of associated warranties and maintenance information.

A+. What were the key outcomes you wanted out of these projects, and did you achieve them?

AC. Council set out to deliver a space that reflected the needs of the community. Council staff were confident that the designs provided by adventure+ would achieve this. Having met on site with members of the public using the new playgrounds, both children and carers, it became evident that the positive feedback demonstrated this.

A+. What were some of the key challenges faced when designing these parks?

AC. To ensure the parks met the needs of Casey’s growing community, we sought feedback from our community throughout a consultation period where residents shared how they would like the space transformed. This was a challenging process, especially with COVID-19 related restrictions preventing in-person engagement.

However, the team still managed to collect valuable community feedback online via Council’s online engagement platform, Casey Conversations.

In addition, feedback was received from children through our Casey kindergarten program’s ‘Draw Your Dream Playground’. Results from the engagement assisted the adventure+ design team with the submission and brief. Time constraints and budget were also a challenge, with the team utilising their creativity to ensure the design meet the brief and community expectations within these constraints.

The scope of works across all the original playgrounds included the removal and disposal of equipment. In alignment with adventure+, City of Casey sought to utilise the Rotary Club’s – Rotary Overseas Relocated Playgrounds (RORP) program whereby playgrounds are ‘harvested’, bundled into shipping containers and transported overseas for less fortunate communities to use. In months to come we will be sent images of the old playground made good again.

Contact adventure+ via the links below

Read the full interview here!