Kulim Park

Project: Kulim Park Playground
Client: Tauranga City Council

The Ground
Kulim Park is a beautiful north facing park at the edge of the harbour in Otūmoetai. Treasured by the local community, it has wonderful views across the harbour to Rangiwaea Island, Matakana Island and Mauao. 

The existing playground was over 30 years old and did little to exploit the vistas and natural surrounding landscape. Tauranga City Council wanted to upgrade Kulim Park to increase the use and enjoyment of the site, establish walkway and cycleway connections, and improve vehicle movement, parking and drainage.

The Creation
The Otūmoetai community, including Mana Whenua – Ngāi Tamarāwaho and Te Whānau a Tauwhao, played an important role in the design of the playground and were influential in sculpting the layout of the park, including the surface pattern which is a Ngāi Tamarāwaho design.

The playground features both natural play elements (stilts, logs, and rocks) together with more traditional playground elements (swings, slides, and seesaws) and includes a 3x3 basketball court for older children. The sequencing of playground components encourages children to progress from the entrance across the whole playground finishing with a flying fox ride.

The ground surface and many of the play elements were selected to allow for wheelchair or all-ability access.

The Play
Sustainability elements came to the fore when creating Kulim Park. More than 1000m²of new gardens and retention pond planting was installed in the surrounding environment, and over 200 linear metres of a new shared cycle and walkway connects the playground directly to the beach/harbour.

The planting of additional trees for shade to cool the environment and fruit trees to sustain the local community added a unique finishing touch to this community asset.