Creating Inclusive and Accessible Play Spaces - Gwealan Tops Adventure Playground

Girl playing with timber musical board

A community playground with a big vision

Established in 2016, Gwealan Tops Adventure Playground in Redruth, Cornwall is renowned as Cornwall’s first and only dedicated adventure playground. Managed by expert playworkers Bridget Handscombe and John Fitzpatrick, Gwealan Tops offers diverse, child-led play opportunities to members of the local community, within natural, wild and garden environments. This vibrant hub hosts various activities including community meals, youth groups, educational programmes and therapeutic spaces, fostering wellbeing and community spirit.

Girl playing with timber musical board
Girl playing with timber musical board

The brief: Play for all

Gwealan Tops sought to enhance their play offering by creating a new, inclusive and more accessible play area. The project’s primary goal was to foster sensory and creative play opportunities within a flexible gathering space that accommodated the needs of diverse children aged 7-18, particularly younger users and those with various physical and neurodivergent abilities. Adhering to the core philosophy of adventure playgrounds, the new area needed to be adaptable and child-led, facilitating open-ended play for all.

The site chosen was an overgrown and unused plot, centrally positioned within the existing playground, ideal for cultivating a sense of community and creative exploration.

Listening, learning and designing together

Recognising the essential principles of flexible and inclusive play, our team conducted an in-depth collaborative workshop with Bridget, John and their team of playworkers. This collaboration focused on understanding how the new space would integrate within the existing adventure playground context and the organisation’s approach to play, with a view to expanding their capacity to welcome children with a wider range of needs. Prior to this development, the play offering focused on active and adventurous options that prioritised physically able children. This project marked a significant step towards greater inclusivity.

 

Collaborative workshop

Designing for diversity: Key inclusive features

  • Planters and Planting Hammock: The planters allow children to learn about nature, grow their own flowers, herbs or vegetables, and be rewarded by watching the living environment evolve. The strategically placed planting hammock enables children with physical limitations to engage comfortably in gardening activities, harvesting edible or sensory plants through the netting, and relaxing.
  • Pea Gravel Play Zone: An area featuring a chute, spinner and pulley board, and balancing scales, which encourages inclusive and experimental play with loose materials. This area provides opportunities for children to engage together in groups to problem solve and influence their play environment.
  • Potion Station & Nature Investigation Table: This area allows children to explore and manipulate natural materials using magnifiers and tools. Granite bowls equipped with pestles and brushes encourage potion making, imaginative play and experimentation.
  • Musical Chair & Acoustic Play: Offering rich sensory experiences, these accessible structures invite children to create unique soundscapes by attaching hanging objects that they can turn into musical instruments and create den spaces where they can take refuge and role play.

Spaces to explore, connect and create

The focal point of the development is the Craft Hub, an octagonal canopy structure designed for versatile use and to be accessible to wheelchair users. This Hub easily transforms from den-building to craft activities, relaxation and social interaction, with flexible segmentation through multiple fixing points around the support pillars. It features benches, blackboards and height-adjustable tables, ensuring comfortable use for wheelchair users and children of varying ages and abilities.

Flexibility is inclusion

Our collaboration with inclusivity specialist David Burdus significantly informed the design process at all stages, as we strived to create a space that supported and engaged children with a broad spectrum of physical and neurodivergent abilities. This led us to ensure we created a play space with many open-ended and adaptable play opportunities to maximises inclusivity.

The project presented a valuable opportunity to deepen our understanding of inclusive design. Engaging with play work experts and an inclusivity specialist enabled our team to fully appreciate how flexible, child-led spaces support inclusive play for children with a wide variety of needs.

A space where everyone can play

This project significantly enhances Gwealan Tops’ commitment to inclusive play, expanding their capacity to welcome children of all abilities. The new inclusive playground promises to be a dynamic, engaging and nurturing space for creative and accessible play, particularly catering to children from the local community that may not be as comfortable exploring the existing physically demanding and high-energy adventure play space.

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Create a playground that’s uniquely yours.

We’re always happy to answer any questions you may have about how we work, or offer advice on how best to successfully deliver your project.