Surfacing Spreads In Scandinavia
Tiger Hil
Locations across Scandinavia are converting in their droves from
loose fill play surfacing to wet-pour Playtop since the company
opened a Scandinavian office earlier this year.
In just four months Playtop has set up new licensees for its
impact-absorbing play surfacing in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and
has completed its first projects.
Scandinavian play areas have traditionally used loose fill
surfacing such as sand and bark. However, since launching Playtop
onto the market, the company has seen an unprecedented number of
enquiries from organisations looking for an alternative.
Kilm Strand
One such organisation is the prestigious Klim Strand Camping in
the north of Denmark. This eco-friendly camp site was looking for a
colourful, flexible surface that it could use in a new 600 square
metre indoor activity and climbing centre. Playtop appealed because
of its colour combinations, its safety characteristics (with a
critical fall height of 2 metres), its low maintenance and its
environmental credentials.
The play area tells the story of the people of the bay of
Jammerbugten, who in times of hardship deliberately beached passing
ships by luring them to the shore. Once stranded, ‘beach
thieves’ moved in stripping the ships of anything edible and
useable. A climbing net represents the ship whilst different
coloured Playtop has been used to create a landscape of dunes,
water, islands and whales.
Jan Jepsen, the owner of Klim Strand Camping, believes the whole
concept is completely new: “The play dome has been positively
received by all of our customers. I think that we will see many
more play areas like ours in the future, where the theme will be
the key.”
Schools are also leading the way, with the first school
playgrounds to use Playtop in Norway and Denmark already open.
‘Tiger Hill’ as it is known was created by architects
for the Tjørnegårdsskolen school in Gentofte, Denmark.
They wanted to create a challenging play area for all ages at the
school. So a large play mound, rising to two metres at its highest,
was created and covered in black and eggshell Playtop surfacing to
resemble a tiger.
“It became very clear that if the project was going to be
a success, the hill should represent one of the key play areas in
the school yard.” said Rasmus Laub Andersen from landscape
architect Kragh & Berglund. “It is our belief that Tiger
Hill as well as the rest of the play area will be used a lot,
bringing joy to the school and its children. Playtop has fully
lived up to our expectations in terms of design, shape and
quality.”
Thomas Moller-Nielsen, Playtop’s international manager for
Scandinavia, adds “The Scandinavians are very environmentally
aware and it’s great that they now have an environmentally
friendly product they can use.
“I also think that our success is very much based on the
flexibility of the product – it can be used for many
purposes. Safety is also a big issue…and municipalities love
the design possibilities that Playtop offers together with the fact
that it requires no maintenance.
“Playtop has been available in Iceland and Finland for
several years. It’s great to see the level of interest that
we’re now also getting from Scandinavia. It’s an
exciting time for us.”
Playtop safer surfacing is manufactured from recycled commercial
vehicle tyres produced by a sister company, Charles Lawrence
International. In addition, Playtop has a global partnership with
Nike, the sportswear company, which sees recycled sports shoes also
used in its surfacing. Every square metre of Playtop which
incorporates Nike Grind contains rubber from approximately 20 pairs
of trainers and one commercial vehicle tyre. Using rubber granulate
from tyres and trainers in this way prevents it ending up in
already overflowing landfill sites.
Learn more about Playtop visit www.playtop.com
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