#playground

For award-winning MAHA Residential Gardens in Beijing BAM worked closely together with renowned hotelier Adrian Zecha to design the landscape and develop a multiphase masterplan strategy which seamlessly weaves in a complex mixture of new and existing, contemporary and classic to establish a grand sense of time for Beijing premier luxury residence redevelopment project. The site occupies the northern edge of Chaoyang Park inside the Fourth Ring Road. At the time of engaging BAM, the site architecture was a mixture of four occupied residential towers, five unoccupied towers, a club and multiple classical Chinese and Roman gatehouses in varying states of functionality. The existing landscape was also a smorgasbord of functional and dysfuncti... More

Oak Grove Park is located in the heart of a modernist housing neighborhood in Klaipėda, Lithuania. Revitalized in 2021, the park has become a beloved spot for locals. It offers two distinct zones: one for active leisure, with sports areas, exercise facilities, and playgrounds, and another for quiet relaxation, where people can read under trees, gather in small spaces, or feed birds by the pond. These areas are linked by a circular pathway—perfect for walking, cycling, or rollerblading. Norbert Tukaj Norbert Tukaj Norbert Tukaj Oak Grove Park shows how public space renewal can stimulate the regeneration of large-scale housing neighborhoods. Much of Lithuania's urban population lives in such estates, including the Rumpi&... More

City and play Aldgate, located in the heart of the City of London, could have easily become a space dominated by corporate use—where people rush through on their way to work or briefly spend lunch breaks glued to their phones. Without thoughtful intervention, it would remain underused outside of peak hours. To prevent this, Carve, in collaboration with Townshend Landscape Architects, carefully designed and inaugurated in 2024 a dynamic and vibrant public realm that acts as a crossroad between movement, playfulness, and community life—intended for both relaxation and active use to coexist.  Carve.nl Carve.nl blurring common distinction of uses  At the heart of Aldgate’s urban transformation is a... More

The MDSA-designed Pre-K Center in Queens opened in September of 2022. The school exhibits a mixture of colors, materials and textures, common in the work of the firm, and fitting to the Mosaic name. Serving the Corona neighborhood, the new three-story school is located near the New York Hall of Science at Flushing Meadow Park.  Pavel Bendov Pavel Bendov Pavel Bendov   The center features include –   - Façade articulation and material palette blends with surroundings.- Landscape areas provide space for outdoor play, which will be available to local residents outside of school hours. Pavel Bendov Pavel Bendov Pavel Bendov The school provides 17 classrooms for 306 students and incl... More

Located in the southern part of Újbuda hills, between the prefabricated apartment blocks from the socialist era and a modern housing area of real estate developers, Madárhegy has been populated mainly with small garden apartment buildings in the last ten years. Many of the new residents are families with children, so there was a significant demand for children's facilities. Recognising this, the municipality has planned a development including a nursery, kindergarten, a paediatric clinic and a public playground. The architects and landscape architects wanted the design to evoke the original grove feel of the site. Thus the "children's grove" was born. Balázs Danyi The site is divided into functional courtyards by... More

Located on the ground floor of a residential building, this project transforms an elongated retail space into a dynamic family center and playroom. Situated on a pedestrian street that connects cities green areas and neighborhoods, and is conveniently close to a metro station, the space is strategically positioned to become a community hub for social interaction, education, and leisure. Nuria Heras Diez The design concept revolves around creating a multifunctional environment that seamlessly integrates activities for both adults and children. The main idea is to foster a space where families can engage in leisure activities, educational programs, and cooperative food preparation, making it a neighborhood focal point for interaction an... More

Places of wonder: museums and playgrounds What identifies a contemporary museum and what can identify a contemporary playground? In 2021 Carve was commissioned to design a climber for a children's museum in Qatar. At start, we questioned how the nature of this contemporary museum can relate to the nature of contemporary play spaces.  ph OliOli® Our reflection started from what is a museum today. A museum is no longer a place where people can just gaze at displayed collections of objects; it is designed to convey interactive and immersive experiences appealing to all senses. In parallel, how can play have the same qualities' encouraging the same experience both cognitive and physically? The main objective for OliOli childre... More

The Battery Playscape is located at the tip of Manhattan where land meets sea, locals meet tourists, and the bustle of the city yields to the presence of nature. Ecologically, the site is a dynamic confluence of water and land; a partly natural-partly constructed coastline that has been altered over time.    Sahar Coston-Hardy /Esto Sahar Coston-Hardy /Esto Conceived after Hurricane Sandy, the 1.5-acre Playscape responds to the site’s past and future flooding by telling the story of resilience, interwoven with play. It is the last piece of the Battery Conservancy’s masterplan which envisioned a verdant future for the then-dilapidated park. The Playscape realizes that vision through accessible, full-body pla... More

Built by the Pafos Municipality and completed in 2020 the new Community Centre houses a mix of uses ranging from nursery age childcare, Kindergarten, afterschool childcare for and also a Day Centre for Pensioners all spread over 2,350 square meters on 4 separate floors which each level being specifically designed around its intended use. Caption It’s aim is to serve the local and greater Pafos Community with particular emphasis on single mothers with children and young families as well as the older local residents. Caption The Design was based around a simple yet robust palette of materials and every element and form designed with the safety and utmost care for the users. Some mentionable features being specialist safety f... More

On November 2, 2019 the new playground of Alma Shopping in Coimbra was inaugurated. A unique and majestic 10-metre high Playground design by Carve that occupies an area of 110 square metres.  Diogo Viana Crespo The Playground consists of four rings, three of which are interlinked, in which you can enter, climb and slide. One huge ring is spectacularly embracing the walking bridge of the first floor, allowing people to walk across the bridge and underneath it, and children to climb over it in the structure. The huge ring is one of the 3 interlocking rings which support each other and are propped up at odd angles creating a ‘stack’ of playable structures. The entire height of the shopping mall is used, resulting in a mo... More

In 2014 Carve was invited by Idealiza Urbanismo to collaborate on the design for Parque Una, a new neighbourhood park in Pelotas (Brazil). From the outset it was clear that our strategy should focus on actively involving the community to create a neighborhood designed for and by the locals. Cristiano Bauce By reorganizing the traffic flows, we optimized the usable space and created room for a green core: a neighbour space that can be easily filled with all kinds of human activity rather than being dictated and dominated by cars. Cristiano Bauce The green park incorporates a play land where water oscillation actively changes the atmosphere. A unique combination of wet and dry landscapes produces the perfect setting for children's... More

Unveiling the play stage at Design Outlet Cheshire Oaks, Ellesmere Port (UK) Carve has realised another unique playground project for our long-standing client McArthurGlen.  (4) © Carve_Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet_photo McArthurGlenn Imagine feeling like an acrobat, climbing and floating way up high, underneath a giant tent structure and in-between the masts that support it, feeling amazed by what you have achieved and observing other children running around freely way down below. (9) © Carve_Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet_photo Passion learning With that sense of excitement and discovery in mind, we created a play stage for the Design Outlet, Cheshire Oaks near Liverpool. The impressive canopy has been custom de... More

Objective:To resurrect and imbue with new life one of the most barren and little-visited places in the zoo. To establish an environment giving rise to qualitatively new usage formats and scenarios. To provide a comfortable environment for animals within a confined area while facilitating programs of varying durations for all seasons for children of all ages. To show children how animals live in a more natural habitat. Solution:A zoo should not be an entertainment and a place where animals are penned up, but a learning environment. The new environment conveys the idea of nature preservation, and includes new play-based educational facilities. The main point of the new Children’s zoo is to treat the children's area of the zoo as a publ... More