Wicksteed was delighted to see the opening of the new inclusive play area at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
The project was the culmination of several months of design and development between the Wicksteed in-house design team and the Hospital.
The previous play area didn’t offer the children enough play value and would only keep them engaged for short periods.
Children can spend long weeks/months as patients in the hospital and the play area is an important area for them to enjoy their free time. It was vital that the design for the hospital was inclusive, colourful and packed full of sensory play features.
Birmingham Children’s Hospital now has a play area which caters for a wide age range of children of all abilities.The design features inclusive items such as the Swirl Roundabout and Mini Basket Swing and a football/basketball area for ball games.
The hospital specified a sensory area so that there was a space for children who wanted ‘quiet time’.The sensory area has an artificial grass surface with seating, musical items and activity panels.
As well as an abundance of exciting new play equipment such as slides and roundabouts, the new play area at the hospital now features our innovative electronic play equipment.
The Wicksteed E-Wall allows children to play educational, physical and interactive games against each other. Exercises and games are created with the E-Wall via a simple to use app. Children then answer the questions by running and jumping, hitting appropriate flashing satellite buttons.
The play area is finished with colourful wet pour surfacing which includes a train track with train and carriage for imaginative play. Surrounding the space is a huge bespoke mural featuring train tunnels and rolling countryside to let children’s imaginations run wild!
Birmingham Children’s Hospital is our second successful project working alongside the NHS this year. Adding colourful spaces where children can, for a couple of hours at least, escape to fantasy worlds and go on their own adventure or even just get a bit of quiet time to read their favourite book makes all of our jobs here at Wicksteed tremendously worthwhile.
