The attractivisation of the Wolfsburg city centre

Plug and play

How the city of Wolfsburg is invigorating its city centre with mobile greenery and mobile play equipment.

Play containers are an increasingly popular way to create a DIN-certified, high-quality and versatile range of play options in a short time and with little effort.

The starting point of this project was the city of Wolfsburg’s desire for “more people to spend more time in the Wolfs­burg city centre”. In order to increase the quality and the length of stay, addi­tional play, rest and recrea­tion zones should be created at suitable loca­tions — initi­ally tempo­r­a­rily.

In order to offer the younger gene­ra­tion and their parents further incen­tives in the city centre and to comple­ment the exis­ting play offers in a targeted manner, a mobile ensemble of play­ground equip­ment became the project’s main attrac­tion.

These pieces of play­ground equip­ment consist of over­seas contai­ners made from steel which, thanks to built-ins made from durable robinia wood, stain­less steel, plexi­glass and nets, as well as crea­tive handi­craft design, are trans­formed into game contai­ners with openings of diffe­rent sizes in the roof and walls, slides, attach­ments and super­s­truc­tures.

With play contai­ners, DIN-certi­fied, high-quality and versa­tile play offers can be created in a short time and with little effort — and not only for schools or kinder­gar­tens, but also for public spaces.

The planner and manu­fac­turer of the play contai­ners is the company Kukuk Box from Stutt­gart.

Client

City of Wolfs­burg

Play containers

KuKuk Box GmbH
Rosen­wies­straße 17
D – 70567 Stutt­gart

With the play containers and the additional greenery, it’s not only the quality of stay in the city centre which was increased, but the microclimate was also improved.

All the measures to increase the quality of stay in the inner city were accom­pa­nied by mobile gree­nery. Depen­ding on the loca­tion and type of use, plan­ters with trees, shrubs or plan­ting columns were combined with the seating and play offers. The selec­tion of plants also takes climate change and the desire for bee and insect friend­li­ness into account.

Several small loca­tions have been created which invite all age groups to play and get toge­ther. With the addi­tional gree­nery, it’s not only the quality of stay in the city centre which was increased, but the micro­cli­mate was also improved.

The project was finan­ci­ally supported by the Euro­pean Union. The total cost was 220,000 euros. The client was the Green Divi­sion of the city of Wolfs­burg.

Address

Porsche­straße
D — 38440 Wolfs­burg

Opening

2021

For the installation of a game container in public space, a free, paved area is sufficient – but the installation can also be done quickly on grass or in a sandy area.

In the simp­lest case, a free, paved area is suffi­cient for setting up a game container in a public space – for example in a pede­strian zone, on a market square or in a schoo­lyard. The game contai­ners are desi­gned in such a way that a fall protec­tion floor accor­ding to DIN is only required for the slide run.

Prefa­bri­cated rubber fall protec­tion elements are supplied and placed toge­ther on site, connected to each other and bordered by a wooden frame. The slide is then simply placed on the pedestal or anchored in it. In this way, the play device can be set up and made ready for use in one day.

If the play container is intended to be set up on grass or in a sandy area, a 30 cm-thick gravel support layer the size of the container set-up area first has to be created. In this version, the slide feet are set up in a concrete foun­da­tion. The subse­quent cons­truc­tion of the play container then also only takes one day. What takes the most time is the hardening of the concrete.

Photos

City of Wolfs­burg
KuKuk Box

Text

Johannes Bühl­be­cker
More Sports Media

Meanwhile, the city of Wolfsburg has 13 play containers in different sizes and for variable installation sites.

The coope­ra­tion between the city of Wolfs­burg and the company KuKuk began in 2016. The first play container was intended to make the outdoor areas of resi­den­tial buil­dings more attrac­tive for refu­gees.

Since the length of the measure was unclear, the KuKuk Box was a very easy choice. It consists of modules and does not require any foun­da­tions. Ther­e­fore, it can be assem­bled and disas­sem­bled very quickly and trans­ported to the next place of use.

The play boxes have proven to be a suitable solu­tion for special requi­re­ments.

In the mean­time, the city of Wolfs­burg has 13 play contai­ners in diffe­rent sizes and for chan­ging parking spaces in schoo­ly­ards, daycare areas and public play­grounds throug­hout the city.

They are not only used as an interim solu­tion for conver­sions and relo­ca­tions, but also as seasonal play offers for places which are not usually play­grounds – such as the shop­ping area in the Wolfs­burg city centre.

The play contai­ners are stan­dar­dised, robust and inex­pen­sive.

They are also ideally suited for perma­nent use as a public play oppor­tu­nity, because they are versa­tile, flexible, inex­pen­sive, easy to care for and sustainable.

A KuKuk box creates spaces and surfaces for clim­bing, froli­cking, playing, sliding on the one hand, and a frame with protected and more private areas on the other.

The frame is formed by the contai­ners; through the instal­la­tions and exten­sions a new land of adven­ture is created from it again and again.

No matter where.

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