WILD PLAY Garden

The Ian Potter Children's WILD PLAY Garden in Centennial Park, Sydney, was designed byAspect Studios and officially opened in October 2017 by Gabrielle Upton, New South Wales Minister for Environment and Heritage. Located within the Centennial Parklands Learning Centre, the 6,500-square-metre garden is built for children aged two to twelve. Running tracks and winding paths thread through dense shrubs and trees, and existing fig trees are retained to provide shaded rest. Children follow self-guiding streams and springs into bamboo groves, trace eel-like winding paths through the fig forest, or test their nerve on spinning bridges and climbing treehouses. Aspect's landscape director Sacha Coles, also a visiting professor at UTS, observes that children are naturally drawn to discovery, challenge, movement and risk: they are happy in nature, splashing in water, climbing trees, jumping in pools and playing hide-and-seek in woods; the designer's job is to translate those observations into built space. Bamboo, banksia scrub and burrows offer hiding, enclosure, shelter and detours; water play is immersive, light and surprising; treehouses push children out of their comfort zone; tunnels let them experience the life of burrowing animals. Funded by the Ian Potter Foundation over three years, the project follows a successful children's garden the foundation opened in 2006 within Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens, which drew 207,000 visitors in 2016 alone. The foundation, Centennial Parklands and Aspect intend the garden to promote innovation and excellence, community health and learning, and above all to encourage children's own initiative and curiosity.