Archintorno designed and built a colourful and flexible outdoor play space made from stackable fruit boxes that were repurposed into building blocks.
PROJECT FACTS
Site: Fiera della Casa Mostra d’Oltremare, Napoli
Function: Kids’ play space
Client: Cooperativa Le Nuvole
Use: semi-public
Type: temporary (1 month)
Year of Construction: 2008
Fabrication: on site
Materials: 400 plastic fruit boxes
PROJECT HISTORY
The cultural cooperative Le Nuvole commissioned Archintorno to create an enclosed outdoor play space in the Le Nuvole Fair. This was a place where kids could be left to explore and have fun while their parents strolled through the fair. The main features of our design were:
• Visually distinct and easily recognisable
• Playful appearance
• Utilized re-usable, low cost materials
• Easy to transport, assemble and disassemble
• Minimal waste production.
Our design recreated a castle, a place many children associate with dreams and fairy tales. We repurposed plastic multi-coloured fruit boxes by using them as building bricks for walls and towers, giving the play space great visibility from within the fair grounds. At the fair’s closing, the fruit boxes were easily disassembled and returned to the farms where they primarily function as grape containers during the annual harvest.
