Kidsafe National Placespace Awards 2012

 

Leading landscape architecture firm, WAX Design, have recently received an award in the Kidsafe 2012 National Place space Design Awards. The Hazelwood Park play space project, known as 'Wombat Waterhole', completed in August 2011 was presented with a ‘highly commended’ award in the category of Public Play spaces up to $500k. The judging panels comments noted that “This playspace ties beautifully with the natural landscape by retaining the woodland trees, establishing garden beds and introducing a dry creek bed” and that the play space demonstrated a “Great range of innovative elements with graded challenges that will appeal to younger and older children” it was also noted that the play space incorporated “True balance of risk benefit with Safety”.

Approaching completion of the Bonython Park Place space

WAX design in collaboration with Ric Mcconaghy and Adelaide City Council are excited to announce the approaching completion of the Bonython Park Place space. The play space is currently in its final stages of construction and in preparation for its opening on the 16^th of December. A family fun day will celebrate the new facility with Mayor Steven Yarwood to officially open the new play space to the public.  The play space is intended to draw upon the rich historical and cultural themes of the surrounding environment and to help to inform a narrative of play opportunities. It looks to reconnect and rejuvenate existing infrastructure, whilst drawing on the central themes of play and exploration to provide an engaging family experience that will encourage many return visits.

Dog Park Officially Opens

Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg officially opened Minkarra Dog Park on the 15^th of September and was ‘pleased the park had been a success in its first fortnight’. The demand for use of the park has been overwhelming since its opening, which has been well attended by local dog owners and enthusiasts alike.

Mawul Rom

Johnny McIntyre has recently returned from a week in the Northern Territory tutoring for Charles Darwin University Masters Programme as part of the Mawul Rom/Master of Indigenous Knowledge’s intensive cross cultural workshop.

Mawul Rom explores a unique space made possible through the commitment of an organisational structure to respect both the separation of power and the fragility of duel pedagogy[i].

Mawul Rom brings two cultures together to share their different styles of teaching, learning, peacemaking and leadership.  There are rare occasions when the concept of the separation of power is applied in the creation of an educational structure but when you think about education it is actually the very process and practice of transferring power.  It is the action of empowerment.

In this case the separation is between two ancient, strong but equally under threat educational institutions.  It is a structural agreement that allows students from different sides of a divide (in this case Yolngu and Westminster education systems) to partake in the course with a sense of safety, comfort and belonging.  They are not asked to leave the refuge of their own cultural world view instead through collaboration; they are encouraged to explore the unknown.  It is this unknown that is always a challenge to humanity because it is sheathed by fear.

“Mawul Rom is a place that I have experienced the ‘Power of Dialogue’ as a bridge towards understanding and the importance of ’Listening’ as a skill towards wisdom.  These are skills essential to creative design and creating great people spaces.”

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[i] Pedagogy is;  the holistic science of education. (wikipidia) the principles, science, practice, theory or profession of teaching. (Collins Dictionary)

Links

www.mawul.com

http://stapps.cdu.edu.au/pls/apex/f?p=100:31:8491135781699529::NO::P31_SEARCH_COURSE,P31_SEARCH_YEAR,P31_SEARCH_VERSION:MIKMR,2012,1