Baebong Elementary School, which we conducted the project, is located at the entrance of Baebong Mountain in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul. While most children in Seoul rarely experience nature, children in Baebong Elementary School live near the natural environment because of Baebongsan Mountain. But because of the lack of connectivity between school and nature, children are not actively taking advantage of the environment. The steep slope caused by Mt. Baebong not only brings difficulties in going to school, but also limits the children’s activities by reducing the closeness between the main school building and the playground. The playground is difficult to go out and play during a short break, so most children play in the back of the school building. Considering this environment of Baebong Elementary School, we wanted to create a nature-friendly three-dimensional playscape in the hope that children would enjoy a green nature.

 We've decided that the direction of the design is to bring children's play areas from the back of the school to the playground. At the same time, it included making children have fun going to school every day.

 After deciding on the big direction of the design, we conducted 3 co-creative participatory workshops with the children. The first part of the workshop stimulated the play imagination in the flat space, the second part was space stereoscopic exploration, and the third part was structural exploration for space connection. Each topic is set for design purposes. The first is the recognition of the play space spread out on Baebong Elementary School, the second is the extension of the radius of activity by connecting steep slopes in three dimensions, and the third is the communication by connecting each space created. Through the workshop, the children had the opportunity to experience a three-dimensional playscape by cutting paper and building a frame with straws.

 EUS+Architects brought the shape of Baebong walking trail of Baebongsan Mountain to the site to create a playscape. The path of the Kium starts from the stairs to the main building of the school to the flower bed of the eco-school, a school walkway, in spiral shape. Along the spiral path, there are stairs toward the school road and play slopes toward the playground. Children who used steep stairs will go to school along a continuous route to the entrance of the school, to the eco-school, to the Kium, to the main building. The path from the main building to the playground expands the children's play territory and enables close connection between Baebong Elementary School's play spaces. If you go up the stairs of Kium, the tree house forms a playscape that blends with the flower beds in the eco-school. This place, which looks like a cabin in the mountains, allows children a nature-friendly play experience that they don't easily experience in the city. Children's imagination through the co-creative participatory workshop is permeated into Kium. What dreams will children have in the playscape imagined with the architect?