Brincadeira Circular (Circular Play) is an educational equipment designed and built through a participatory process. It involved the whole community of Escola Fernanda de Castro, located in Tapada das Necessidades, a public park in the middle of Lisbon. The project was promoted by the Parish Council of Estrela, through an environmental trust with the aim of promoting projects grounded on circular economy and sustainability principles.
This is a unique public school, a small building integrated in a large outdoor space, although with not much play equipment as the children’s activities mostly take place in a paved football field. To decide what this equipment should be, a series of activities with the students were held in order to understand what they would like to have on their playground. The result was a hut.
This hut, imagined by the children and designed by Warehouse, was to be built out of wood, using leftovers from previous Warehouse projects as wall coverings as well as milk packages for the roof covering which were collected, washed and stored by the children, parents and staff throughout the previous months.
During the construction Warehouse lead another series of activities with the children and parents to create works of art for the interior of the hut, such as paintings and sculptures reusing wood from the building site. The older students and their parents also participated in the last day of construction, helping with final touches.
The ground floor of the hut became a gallery, where the art works were displayed, and the upper floor became a studio, where new sculptures could be built with the wooden leftovers from the construction itself.
It is our belief that through a participatory and collaborative process of creation, design and construction, the efficacy of such projects is tenfold. The engagement of parents and children in the process makes them active agents in this small scale circular economy, and consequently all the more aware to the issues the project aimed to address.
During its lifespan, this artistic installation will function as an educational space where the themes of circular economy, upcycling, reuse and ecological responsibility will have the limelight through activities lead by teachers and educators.
