This project is a small competition entry to "rethink playgrounds".
A bright evening moon invites those of all ages to stop and take some time to wonder at the universe together. This "Re-thinking of the playground" suggests a time shift in play to the evening hours - a time when children, teenagers, and adults have free time outside of their hectic schedules.
This terrain is an interpretation of the other side of the moon. When we look up at the moon, we only get to see one side of it, as it rotates with its "near side" always facing us. The "far side" is a mysterious landscape that has undergone much less human observation throughout history. It was first photographed by a lunar probe in 1959 and has never been landed on.
The Other Side of the Moon offers us a world still full of imagination, when so much of our world seems completely chartered. Through the combination of fantasy and some educational opportunities, this landscape can capture the attention of many age groups. The moon also offers up various conversation topics between adults and young people, for example: astronomy, the space race, perhaps the cold war, and even contemporary scientific exploration.
This interpretation of the moon is 300,000 times smaller than the moon itself in diameter. It therefore has a variety of proportional relationships that do not limit it to just children, teens, or adults. The variety of concave, convex, stepped, angled, and flat surfaces allow for all kinds of playful activities such as climbing, running, and sliding. However, the nature of the craters also allow for sitting and observation within the play area - not just on the periphery. The disjunct between play activity and periphery observation is a problem for getting different age groups to interact. This terrain proposes that observation and activity can be done anywhere.