A new children’s playground has been set out on a green space near the Hotel Park in Ljubljana city centre.

The idea to have a children’s playground near the Hotel Park is part of the Map of Wishes project, organised by the ProstoRož collective in August last year outside the Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana. The impetus behind this was to encourage local residents to express their wishes and needs regarding public space in the Tabor area, and in the 224 wishes collected, a children’s playground was mentioned more than 40 times.

The new children’s playground is in the Tabor area, and since ‘tabor’ means ‘camp’ in Slovene, there is a theme of camping and campers. Six variously-laid out triangular houses and some additions create diverse scenes: lakeside, in the woods, by the campfire, at an oak table and so on. These are connected by a path made of recycled asphalt onto which sandy surfaces for games are attached.

The playground also features a slide and swing under a chestnut tree which were already on the site, with the new addition of four benches and a larger semi-circular bench that also beckon residents of other generations to the playground.

The designers of the Tabor playground focused on a world of fantasy. They sought to offer children a framework within which they could come up with an endless number of diverse situations and games, either from the real world or from the fantasy world. The play areas are designed so that many children can play on them at the same time. In this way and by including various generations, the designers would also like to encourage social contacts between children and older people.