Playground redefined: from pre-made to self-made adventure land

At Hung Hom Urban Park resides an unusual playground. There are no ready-made slides or swings, but only small mounds of sand, fortresses built of planks, and sundry tools scattered around the place.

Children's eyes light up. Picking up hammers and nails, connecting planks and arranging tires, they transform the playground into their own wonderland. Here, every child holds the gift of creation in their hands: the loose sand was their concrete, and the discarded wooden crates their building blocks. This is the Dream Together Playground: inspired by the concept of "adventure playgrounds" pioneered by Danish landscape architect Carl Theodor Sørensen, it is Hong Kong's first adventure playground where children call the shots.

Under the Wharf-sponsored "Playright Half-and-Half Power Up" initiative, students from Po Chiu Catholic Secondary School and Notre Dame College became the first "co-creators" of the Dream Together Playground. One group built a wide slide out of planks, where users could glide side-by-side. Another group created a swing with a balance beam in place of an ordinary seat, so that players would swing in a standing position. To the students' delightful surprise, younger children took inspiration from their creations: some fashioned swings out of tires, while others added wooden climbing steps beside the swing frames.

Kam Yuen-ling, a student from Po Chiu Catholic Secondary School, said, "It's not just about having fun, but also a sense of fulfillment. For most of us, it was our first time using an electric drill. We felt like designers and construction workers, with our ideas supported and brought to life." Wong Sing-yu from Notre Dame College noted, "After completing the facilities, I realized that a lot can be accomplished when people come together."

As children experiment with tools like electric drills and saws, "playworkers" at the playground provide support and intervene when necessary, balancing students' safety and freedom of exploration. Cindy, a Play and Playwork Manager at Playright, explained that a playworker's role is not to create a risk-free environment, but to teach children about hazards such as unstable structures and improper use of tools, and how to avoid or fix them.

According to Japanese play expert Hitoshi Shimamura, play is a process of exploring boundaries, akin to "catching butterflies": just as one gently captures a butterfly without harming it – neither losing it through a timid grip, nor damaging it through a reckless one – children learn to navigate boundaries through play. Driven by curiosity and ambition, children experiment with different solutions to problems. This adventurous spirit, cultivated in play, ultimately bears fruit in the form of resilience – much needed for facing life's challenges ahead.