Modest rectangle - about 100m2 - in a small courtyard of the elite house Malaya Ordynka 19, occupied by a playground, for which Sminex invited specialists: architects of the Druzhba bureau, specializing in local urban planning and working with children. They designed the southern "children's" courtyard of the Polytechnic Museum, they own a project for a playground for the Renome residential complex, one of the festival courtyards in Vyksa, a project for a bus stop there, and, for example, a project for improving the courtyard of the Moscow "New School".
In general, the playground on Malaya Ordynka resembles the project for the New School, but smaller in size and even more concentrated. Because her tongue does not dare to call it a "platform" - the plasticity and volume are so strengthened here. Rather, it could be understood as a somewhat enlarged children's house, merged with a slide, if this “house” did not resemble so much a sandy hill, but not a simple one, but from a cartoon explaining the name “Dunes”.
Strictly speaking, hill dunes do not occupy the entire rectangle of the site, but about two-thirds. The rest, facing the dry fountain, which thus becomes part of the composition, is covered with pine bark and is occupied by a swing - a swing is needed.
But the rest of it is stunningly three-dimensional, because it uses, as befits an architectural structure, the allocated space intensively, in other words, several times. You can run along the top of the slides, climb them with the help of climbing devices and ropes stretched between wooden poles, you can finally climb inside - like a good rabbit mountain, these artificial hills are dug with holes in which an adult can fit, and which make you remember the famous words: "Once upon a time there was a hobbit in a hole underground …".
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1/5 Space "Dunes". Illuminated evening view "Culture of Light"
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2/5 Space "Dunes" Architectural bureau "Druzhba"
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3/5 Space "Dunes" Architectural bureau "Druzhba"
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4/5 Fragment of the space "Dunes" Architectural bureau "Druzhba"
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5/5 Space "Dunes" Architectural bureau "Druzhba"
And, as we remember, the hole was comfortable. Here, too, everything is very comfortable. On the hills, in addition to climbing frames, there are also “built-in” steps, and in the recess, a little lower, sand is poured for the kids.
The hills, as we can see, like a wasp's nest, are stuck to the wall that separates the courtyard from the courtyard of the neighboring school. The wall is treated like a large slate board for drawing. Embracing the slides, a gently curved metal tube-slide descends from the outer edge - another element of the playground, which is just as necessary as a swing.
In a word, there is everything you need and even more - the slate slide is certainly not included in the "standard set". And besides the auditory tubes, there is a periscope. It is designed like a real one, with a mirror. And made of steel according to the drawings of the "Horizon" company, it is very reliable, although at the moment it is a unique development, a thing calculated and implemented specifically for Malaya Ordynka.
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1/3 Space "Dunes" Architectural bureau "Druzhba"
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2/3 Space "Dunes". Inside the "Nora" Architectural bureau "Druzhba"
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3/3 Space "Dunes". Drawings of the "periscope" Architectural bureau "Druzhba"
One of the fundamental features of the Dunes playground is that, like many modern projects for children like it, it is designed for their self-development and not so much offers them ready-made scenarios (although we admit they also exist), as it relies on a creative approach on the part of small users - on what they themselves will come up with, in what many other ways you can use the complexly curved space allotted for them.
The authors also emphasize that they consider the trend for multicolor to be wrong and outdated, which can even irritate children with variegation: therefore, natural colors and materials were chosen for the project.
Thanks to the natural color, the site, in particular, organically blended into the rich landscaping of the courtyard of the elite house, Malaya Ordynka, 19, whose rest, like the architecture of the house, was developed and implemented by ADM architects. Hills-dunes may seem to be an intensified continuation of the geoplastik of lawns, setting the theme of the "swelling" of the relief of the courtyard, which was initially flat, but lively with landscaping.
And the predominant sandy, beige-yellow color, because of which the site from a distance looks like a pair of mountains of sand dumped from a truck - oh, how we loved to climb such mountains in childhood and, by the way, dig holes in them - echoes the wooden inserts on the courtyard facades houses.
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1/6 General plan of the courtyard of the elite house Malaya Ordynka 19. The area of the space "Dunes" is highlighted in red. Architectural bureau "Druzhba"
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2/6 Space plan "Dunes" Architectural bureau "Druzhba"
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3/6 Space "Dunes". Space plan Druzhba Architectural Bureau
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4/6 Space "Dunes". Cross section through a large sandbox; Architectural bureau "Druzhba"
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5/6 Space "Dunes". Burrow section Druzhba Architectural Bureau
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6/6 Space "Dunes". Facade Architectural bureau "Druzhba"
In conclusion, I just want to say - it's a pity that such an exceptional work is not available to all children, but only to residents of a closed courtyard - however, in fairness, we note that, firstly, Moscow municipal playgrounds, especially in parks, have blossomed in recent years and now it cannot be said that the children of the capital lacked their diversity. And secondly, the operation of such a structure, with a developed interior space, in open urban spaces would be problematic (we all remember what became of closed playhouses in city courtyards), and here, in a private guarded courtyard, the site of architects Friendship”, in which so much attention and creativity has been invested, will, one must think, serve happily ever after.