Canada: Géoparc de Percé Adds “Marine“ Indoor Playground

Géoparc de Percé, located close to Montréal on Canada’s east coast, offers a large edutainment offer for families, focused on geology and nature. Recently, the park added a new indoor playground for children to its line-up: a huge, three-dimensional rope-net landscape in shape of a water world. Two black space nets, which span the entire area of the room, separate it into three levels – the “sky” on top, the “marine world” in the center and the “bottom of the sea” at the very bottom. The individual levels are connected by three conical net-funnels, reminiscent the rock formations of the coast of Percé. Through the funnels, children can climb from the sky to the underwater world down all the way to the ocean floor. For those who want to reach the bottom quickly from the very top, there is a tunnel slide with a direct connection to the ground. Between the middle level and the ocean floor there are also climbing ropes, which remind of underwater plants. Hammocks are attached directly beneath the ceiling on the top level.

The idea of the water world design stems from Montréal-based architects group BC2 to meet the client’s wish to imitate the geographic surroundings at Canada’s east coast. The German supplier Berliner Seilfabrik implemented the ropes for an appropriate climbing challenge. “Enclosed spaces are often a special challenge regarding their planning, as space is clearly predefined and thus inflexible,” explained Anne Eckert, Architect and Head of Construction and Development in the team of Berliner Seilfabrik. “This affects the accurancy of fit of the nets as well as their connection points, which have to be set accordingly,” he added. According to the park, more than 200 children have been all over the net landscape every day since the opening of the new indoor play area this past summer. (eap)