Mombasa

The task was to create a Mombasa themed play area. Parents sit and watch their children play while relaxing and having something to eat. DPA created the Dhow where kids can climb up the rope ladder on to the deck of the boat where they can play with the daily catch of fish and interact with their friends. This dry docked boat also has a rope pulley on the side where children pull the rope and “bilge” water spills out into buckets. This water can be used to clean the boat. When the boat is dry barnacles appear all over, but when the kids “paint” with water the boat cleans up and the barnacles disappear. There’s also a sandbox, and tools to repair the boat as well as a picture moment with a larger than life Dorado.

 
 

Nairobi Village

Want to spend the afternoon relaxing and playing in a rural African village? A petting Kraal at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park has been transformed to allow for just that; without traveling half way around the world. Play with the goats or check out the pair of graphic Ankole Cattle that stand along the brush fences between mud huts while flock of wooden chickens scratches below. Visitors turn a nearby recycled automobile axle pump to fill water gourds, balancing them on their heads to transport the water to the cattle as African women do daily. They also play in a hand-carved wooden canoe that wiggles as if it is in water. A maze of tall grasses and Lion’s Tail provides for an endless game of tag or hide and seek. Those who want a bit less activity can bang out a rhythm on the African drums; have their faces painted at the beauty shop; or just sit and watch others from the shaded comfort of a variety of hand made seats in the shaded huts.

Taken from preliminary concepts to completion of construction in just three months; much of the detailed design was determined while the area was being built - and all within a limited budget.