Creating a dynamic, natural play space, within a historic landscape.
Water for the waterway is diverted from the storm drain, while also providing a means for education on water conservation and generation of electricity.
Unstructured play allows exploration and discovery, along with risk-taking elements to develop coordination and problem-solving.
Dig Studio is leading a team to create a natural play experience in the southeast corner of City Park, south of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The goal of the project is to create a programmable, captivating space that encourages curiosity, wonder, learning, exploration, and discovery.
The project entails the re-creation of Colorado’s ecosystems along the spine of the DeBoer Waterway as a natural creek bed, resulting in a sustainable, environmentally sensitive space with nodes of natural play experiences throughout the park. This space will serve as the connective tissue for the eight ecosystems represented in the Museum’s Explore Colorado Diorama Hall to the natural representation of these eight ecosystems in this natural play area. Each Colorado habitat will tell its story through the play experience of the children and families of the community and will be enhanced through programmatic extensions from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
The restored Deboer Waterway will play a key role in the ecosystem, illustrating how they were formed over millennia through their interaction with water as it flows from mountains to plains.
