The Dolfijn Schoolyard in Haarlem is not only a schoolyard on its own. It serves as a place that children and the neighborhood can use after school times, during the week, and on weekends. It had only 14 m2 of green, only 7% of the total schoolyard! Several infiltration problems were happening together with very few diverse play opportunities in the schoolyard (only 6 existing play elements and 2 big football fields). This schoolyard needed climate adaptive childfriendly adaptiation!
A thorough process – including climate lessons, co-design, co-construction – involving several presentation for diverse stakeholders has brought us to a constantly improving design. The school and the neighborhood are very happy with the results : a successful green community play area / schoolyard, cooler in summer, no more floods & more diverse, inclusive and educative green play areas. The children are co-maintaining the schoolyard with our Nature Heroes program.
More about the process in this article: Groen Kapitaal