logo

Bruit
du Frigo

Hooky classes #3: Le toboscope

Bordeaux grow nature


Bordeaux

Voir Cours Buissonières #1 : Le Tipituile

Voir Cours Buissonières #2 : L’Asterogrotte

> Voir Cours Buissonières #4 : Le Mont Victoire (in progress)

Bushcraft courses
Bordeaux Grow Nature

In 2021, the Bordeaux municipal authorities are launching a vast project to upgrade the city’s school playgrounds and crèches. More than 150 establishments will be affected by the renaturation of playgrounds, the removal of waterproofing, the renewal of furniture and the invention of more inclusive and less gendered spaces.

4 groups were selected for the project. Each year, the contracting authority awards the sites to be transformed to the contractors.

We responded alongside Agence de paysage Base. As part of their consultation and implementation process, Bruit du frigo is designing a playful piece of furniture. It is similar to a tree house, whose uses and themes are defined with the teaching staff and school children during participatory workshops. Depending on the age group, the workshops are sometimes creative, sometimes playful. Our intention: to feed the specifications of the furniture to be built.

This time of creation and exchange enables us to produce a sketch that is discussed with the educational community and validated by the project owner. Most of the construction work is carried out in situ during school hours, so that the children can also contribute to its development.

 

2023 – Carle Vernet nursery school – Le toboscope

At the start of the project, we asked the teaching team to work with the children on the imaginary world of the tree house. We set in motion 2 play and drawing workshops with the kindergarten’s moyenne and grande section pupils. The workshops led to the drafting of specifications, and the children’s drawings inspired the final shape of the sketch.

The toboscope is an observation hut. It revisits and merges the object of the periscope and the toboggan, combining the following uses: observing, sitting, sliding, climbing, gaining height, and being reflected by a kaleidoscope mirror effect. The hut can accommodate 3 to 4 children at the same time. One direction of circulation is defined by a ground-floor entrance with a low platform for sitting, followed by climbing holds that lead to an elevated platform. The observation platform is the viewfinder of the periscope, the covered part of the hut where two large eyes allow children to observe what’s going on in the courtyard. Here, the eyes are made of Plexiglas, preserving their transparency and giving the children a clear view. Children descend a slippery slope and land in mulch. Under the hut, they can also take shelter and play with the reflection of the mirror on the underside. On the side walls, small holes allow you to slide your eyes in and out, to observe without being seen, and to bring in light like a disco ball.

The toboscope is built from a powder-coated metal structure to create a lightweight form. The walls and interior linings are in painted and varnished tilly.

The toboscope is classified as play furniture.




















































Last
projects

> all projects

At the crossroads of art, territories and populations, our approach aims to promote the transition to sustainable, shared and welcoming cities, by proposing alternative ways of imagining and building our living environment and by exploring new forms of public space.