We love cookies. But we’ve never been fans of cookie cutter designs. That’s why one of our most memorable Play projects of the past 12 months is undoubtedly Pipemakers Park near the famous Flemington racecourse in Melbourne. The last time we wrote about it we were in the design and planning stages with Maribyrnong City Council. Well, we’re delighted to say the 100% custom playground is now open and being enjoyed by the public!

Budget is no barrier to creativity

Maribyrnong City Council’s brief was for us to create a custom sculptural nature play space to fit within the rich industrial heritage of the wider eight-hectare public reserve. Creatively, they wanted something exciting and unique to inspire the local community. The catch was the limited budget. This presented a fantastic challenge for the Fleetwood design team. Thanks to some super-smart design thinking, great collaboration and a lot of hard work, we were able to deliver on all counts.

“It’s always very satisfying to compare our original concept drawings with the final structures on a project like Pipemakers Park,” says Fleetwood Design Lead, Mark Jol. “Despite the constraints of the budget, our DesignExecute2™ process meant we were able to create exactly what we set out to for Maribyrnong City Council. In fact, it’s remarkable how similar the concepts are to the now-completed park. The finished structures look just as good, if not better, than those early sketches! We couldn’t be happier with the result, and neither could Council.”

100% original, 100% affordable

Walking around Pipemakers Park today there’s a fabulous blend of old and new, with lots to love and explore for families of all ages, including towering climbing forts, twisting pipe slides, a wood and rope obstacle course, sand play, hammocks, outdoor musical instruments and even a giant mosaic and lavender garden. But in Mark Jol’s eyes, the most exciting thing is all of the key Play elements are 100% original.

“There’s still a perception that custom designs are always expensive to produce and hard to maintain,” says Mark. “But that’s simply not true. Pipemakers Park is proof yet again you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a completely custom playground that will last for decades and never be repeated. Despite being an one-off design with pretty much nothing off-the-shelf, we came in comfortably on budget.”

As Mark says, “Why settle for a cookie cutter design when you can have a true original with the same budget?”

See how affordable custom play structures can be, with no obligation.

Contact Fleetwood today for your FREE Project Scoping Session.

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