From Noise to Nice – The Tuning of a Playground
WINNER 2024 | Categories: Soundscapes & Ambient Sound, Universal Design, Social & Culture
Entrant
Abstract
How can we create environments that beckon people to stay, play, and explore? By consulting with children – The outcome? A jungle-themed playground in the old harbor of Helsingborg. Djungellekan offers a unique soundscape where visitors can interact with the animals and jungle habitat through multiple senses.
Description
If you’re looking to climb trees alongside monkeys, ride an elephant, or befriend a gorilla, a visit to the ‘Djungellekan’ playground in Oceanhamnen,Helsingborg is a must.The playground aims to function as an urban retreat for the whole family and children of all ages. Helsingborg had a vision of turning the old harbor and industrial area Oceanhamnen into a new vibrant district. With a focus on the environment and sustainability, greenery and play were important elements in transforming the old dry dock into a park and playground.
When the city’s youngest citizens, the children, were given a voice –t hey didn’t ask for a water-themed playground, despite the area’s geographical and historical location(close to the sea). Instead, the most favored theme was the jungle.They imagined the animals of the jungle arriving in boats from continents far away and their dreams came to life in the summer of 2022. But–the sound environment of the area could have stopped the whole project.
The placement of the playground right beside heavy harbor traffic created some challenging sound tasks that needed to be sorted out. Efterklang was assigned to take care of the sound environment. Efterklang use their approach of remixing the city soundscape by reducing the traffic noise with a noise barrier. After reducing the traffic noise by 6 dB (which is a lot) they concentrated on enhancing the sound environment in the playground by a 12-channel soundscape.Last but not least they added recorded facts about animals to be played in four high pillars in the park through vibration speakers. Djungellekan is the first playground of its kind in Sweden and through tailored sound design and acoustic expertise, the old dry dock has been transformed into a green oasis filled with unexpected auditory adventures.
City sound remix
As the park is located in a busy harbor area, next to boarding lanes for the ferry connection to Denmark, the first step was to create the right acoustic conditions for the location. Therefore, Efterklang designed a noise barrier to reduce traffic noise.From a distance, the noise barrier looks like old shipping containers, which alludes to the historical use and identity of the area. Also, good acoustics is crucial for enabling a good sound design.
Multitude of sound sources
Nature itself has been the source of inspiration and to recreate a true-to-life sound distribution we needed to figure out where we wanted to add sounds and why?In a jungle, the sounds come from a lot of different directions and in different scales. To mimic this, we used a 12-channel speaker system which enabled us to play different sounds in different places around the park.
Good vibrations
Apart from the 12-speaker system, we also produced other creative sound installations.Such as four animal facts recordings that can be heard when putting your ear to a giraffe’s neck (the four high poles) through immersive vibration speaker technique, and an interactive Gorilla that comes to life by pushing a button.
Project Video