Local students bring fresh ideas to Hoon Hay Park

Students at Te Kōmanawa Rowley School have stepped into the role of landscape architects – designing, prototyping and constructing a new play space in Hoon Hay Park.

As part of the Place Cadets programme by Gather Landscape Architecture, the primary-school students have spent the last five months undertaking a full co-design process for a play structure in their local park.

The project involved mapping their neighbourhood, learning about the park’s wetland history, conducting a site visit, developing a brief, making scale models, building full-size cardboard prototypes, and ultimately helping construct the final play structure.

Place Cadets programme lead Wendy Hoddinott says the project gave students practical experience in planning, model-making and construction alongside design professionals and using specialist tools.

“The resulting landscape design reflects the children’s ideas gathered through hands-on exploration, model-making and dialogue.

“Ten-year-olds from the school collaborated with designers to articulate their aspirations for play, challenge, and a meaningful relationship with their environment.”

The students learned how to think like a landscape architect, create prototypes and work with the Council to get the building approved for construction in Hoon Hay.

Hoon Hay Park was once part of a rich wetland ecosystem, with design inspiration drawing on the regenerative strength of the kahikatea tree - once an integral part of the original wetland environment.

“The structure references the weaving form of the tree’s root system, creating spaces for climbing, movement, and cosy hideaway spaces,” Ms Hoddinott says.

“The new play feature integrates with the existing playground to form a continuous loop of climbing, balancing and jumping elements with an obstacle-style play experience.”

The students presented their plans to the Community Board in early 2025, who approved the designs, and the new play space was completed late last year.

The Council is exploring the potential for phase this year, which will focus on native planting, a series of logs to step and balance on and painting the adjacent paving and older play equipment with designs and colours inspired by the wetland ecosystem. This project was supported with funding from the Place Partnership Fund.

Image credit: Petra Mingneau