This linear park unites the Alexandra Road and Ainsworth Estates designed in 1968 by Neave Brown. The original park was created by Brown in conjunction with renowned landscape architect Janet Jack and was completed in 1979. It was designed as a playable landscape consisting of five linked sunken play areas conceived as ‘outdoor rooms’. The park was the first 20th century landscape to be listed in the UK.

Overgrown and fallen into disrepair (most playgrounds removed) in 2012 the park received Heritage Lottery funding.

We designed four new play spaces for the park, which reference Jack’s historic play features but reinterpret them in a contemporary manner. The key challenge was to create a play space incorporating modern play theory (and play safety) in the context of an important piece of urban design and cultural heritage.

Park 1979

Park 1992

As found in 2012. Most other rooms were empty - nearly all features had been removed, holes willed with black tarmac.

Erect Architecture consulted closely with Jack to ensure their contemporary play designs remained true to the original ethos of the parkland. The designs picked up on features within the original playgrounds but also increased the complexity of the play offer, added play types and sensory experiences and increased risk and challenge to provide modern playgrounds inspired by the originals.

A bespoke climbing frame, based on a deconstructed geodesic dome of the original design, dominates the next playground: vivid yellow steel triangles lean against each other and are filled in with nets, ropes, monkey bars, and climbing struts for children aged six plus.

The swing room, where the only surviving original play feature had been a red swing, now provides a variety of swing types set in a landscape of grass mounds.

Re-inventing original materials, dark wood and blockwork play houses, as well as original features such as the chunky sleeper mound with slide.

The final space provides a sunken multi-pitch area suitable for a range of sports and games.

Janet and Bill Jack touring the completed project.

Janet Jack and Susanne Tutsch discussing the project at RIBA event.