IN FULL SAIL

Work has begun on one of the UK’s largest city centre play spaces in Plymouth

It’s set to be one of the biggest city centre play spaces in the country and – with a key feature wooden ship – Plymouth’s Armada Way play village is ship-shaping up to be a destination in its own right. Measuring 1,120sqm – the size of nearly five tennis courts – the development will put play into the heart of the city’s massive regeneration project as part of a deliberate move to change how people use the post-war city centre. The play area is part of a larger regeneration project of Armada Way, driven by Plymouth City Council. Councillor Mark Lowry, Cabinet Member for Finance and city centre champion, said: “The High Street has changed dramatically. Online shopping is here to stay but we still want our city centre to be alive and buzzing with people. This regeneration programme is about bringing people back into the city centre – not just to shop but to play and to meet up.”

Bringing play to the people

Earlier this year, Plymouth City Council set out a vision to create 10,000 new homes in the city centre, so somewhere for children to play on their doorstep will be crucial to families having a happy, healthy life. The Armada Way play village goes a long way to cater for the need.

Martin Ivatt, the council’s Regeneration and Placemaking Manager, said: “There’s a lot riding on this, with more families expected to live in the city centre, we want to create something special.

THE DESIGN REFERENCES PLYMOUTH S MARITIME HERITAGE AND ITS ROLE IN EXPLORATION

“It’s going to be a fun and fantastic place for kids – but this is about more than play – if just a few more people spent £5 on a coffee and cake watching their little ones, that’s money going into our businesses. Kids playing there after school means more people out and about in the city centre, it feels safer and busier.”

Innovative designs

The play village was designed by city-based Studio Agora Architects and was based on biomes. Themed into zones – desert, mountain, aquatic, forest and grasslands, the village is about encouraging young explorers to use their imagination.

As well as swings and slides, the desert island section for toddlers will have a pirate ship for wannabe sailors from Britain’s Ocean City. There’s circular wooden seating for story telling – handily close to the Central Library.

A large mound of rocks with a slide is planned for the mountain section while there’s lots of wet play in the aquatic zone, with water jets and a shallow rill for damming and scooping water. In a nod to Plymouth’s history, this part will have studs on the ground marking where the Plymouth leat ran – a water course dating back to Drake’s era.

The forest section will have giant dodecahedron shaped tree houses that link to each other with slides, cargo nets and monkey bars to swing from.

There will be a quieter, calmer sensory play zone separate to the main play area for children who are neurodiverse. Based on the grasslands theme, it will have varied surfaces, levels of grass for texture and interest, bark mulch and sand areas. Special attention is being paid to sound with a sound stone, windpipes, impulse spheres and tubular chimes. The selected features have taken into account access and usability by children with disabilities.

Among the play companies supplying equipment for the project are KOMPAN, Richter, Duncan & Grove. Installation work began 24 September.

Lee Ferris from Studio Agora said: “The concept is based on Get Set Explore. The design references Plymouth’s maritime heritage and its role in exploration.

“As children we are at our most inquisitive, so wanted them to explore all different areas within the play village and ignite sparks of interest in travel and different habitats through play.”

The project’s principal contractor is Morgan Sindall, with LARC construction as groundworkers and OCMIS delivering the water feature and dancing jets. The Rathbone Partnership are working as landscape architects, Ridge as structural engineers and WSP as project managers.