© Underdog Heavy Industries 1969-2011
Hart Hill Nursery School
Hart Hill Nursery sits at the top of a steep hill
and is blessed with a lot of outdoor space. We
have worked in phases over five years at this
school creating a number of separate distinct
areas with a unifying scheme.
The first area we developed was simply a
grassed mound largely surrounded by tarmac
(click here to see what it was like).
We
constructed two structures connected by a
bridge with multiple routes through the space.
Around the back of the structure we added a
lot of sympathetic planting and built a tunnel
covered with clematis and ivy. The route
terminates in a slide leading down to rubber
safety surface.
In the second phase of development we added
a ball-wall (shown to the right) which doubles
as concealment for storage sheds and an extensive sound garden (shown at bottom
left) which contains twelve different sound-makers or musical instruments including a
one octave fully tuned xylophone.
We then developed a totally separate area for the 0-3 year olds which included a
teepee with coloured windows and a shelter wrapped around a beautiful cherry tree.
This area had to be super-safe so the
geometry of all steps and stairs were changed
and rubber safety surface used to protect
children from any potential fall.
In the next phases we brought the woodland
strip alongside the school back into use by
building an gatehouse allowing supervised
access to the woodland areas. This included
making a woodland walk leading through the
trees to a bird hide which allows small groups
of children with binoculars to observe the
wildlife in the trees and on the allotments
beyond.
We also build a large decorative bridge and a
collection of colourful signs to delimit a bike
track between the sound garden and the baby
garden.
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