The schoolyard of the ‘brede school’ Getsewoud did not function as intended. An immense building, housing three primary schools, was realised only five years prior to our assignment. Situated in a recently build suburb of Haarlemmermeer, most public space surrounding it was already dedicated to infrastructure for commuters. The main problems in the former situation concerned bringing and picking-up of about 900 children in a very short time span resulting in a recurrent traffic jam; a lack of suitable scale and intimacy for young children; the costs for maintenance; and playable sculptures that were not used.

To adjust the scale of the schoolyards on both sides of the building, we decided to divide the terrain into three parts by introducing a line of trees with benches. The benches can be used from both sides and function as an informal boundary. The now smaller yards for the younger children are made convex, up to a meter high, to create an inviting micro world. Borderless sandpits are sunken into the ground and together with the bridge that spans over them, they are a part of a ‘Manhattan-like’ street grid in brick, which is also used for traffic education.

The schoolyards for the older children are almost kept free of obstacles to allow for as much free space as possible, for all sorts of games. At one side, the wall-holla, a vertical piece of play equipment incorporates a soccer goal, a slide and enough space for 30 children to play at the same time. We convinced the city that here was a unique possibility to combine the schoolyard with the public playground situated next to it, offering a possibility to make a bigger area, dedicated to the children in this densly built suburb. It now also contains a multipurpose ball court with banked sides and ledges for skaters. The specially designed play equipment is placed on steep convex and concave safety surfacing to magnify the play experience dramatically.