Location Yangon, Myanmar Client / operator Lycée Français International Joseph Kessel (LFIR) Architect & principal designer Raphaël Ascoli Blue Temple, Yangon, Myanmar www.blue-temple.com Author Raphaël Ascoli Photos Nyan Zay Htet Official opening 2023 Construction costs USD 5.500 (EUR 5.000) 38
ENDLESS ADVENTURE BUILT AT LOW COST
BAMBOO PLAYGROUND IN YANGON
How it was created
Yangon‘s cityscape is characterised by a mixture of British colonial architecture, mod ern skyscrapers and gilded Buddhist pagodas. The bamboo playground of the French International School of Yangon is a jungle-like play area occupying 666 m². Architecture studio Blue Temple has conceived a micro-narrative as a series of imagination-fuelled, self-directed games in a kind of parkour. The games give the children the freedom to explore a multitude of ways of engagement. The former playground consisted of a large concrete floor with no shading and no play equipment. The new playground’s design weaves itself around the two existing trees on the site into an endless curved structure. Within the structure, the combi-
nation of a series of games creates an infinitely long obstacle course. The games are arranged in the following order: bamboo jungle, fishing net, monkey bars, swings, Myanmar-style hopscotch, and then repeat themselves. sb 4/2023