This is a lovely project we've never posted ... Wayward and Studio Weave in collaboration were one of four shortlisted practices to design a new play-space for Three Mills Green in east London. The competition was organised by Architecture Foundation on behalf of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, The Legacy List charity and landowners, Lee Valley Regional Park Authority.
Our proposal envisages the landscape as a country of millers, a little known place where all aspects of weather are made and measured. Within the imagined nation, humps are island countries, home to different types of weather miller, the ridge is a mountain range and the towpath is a wild coastline. Inspired by early mills in the area, the country is populated by machine-like play structures that make a range of weather. Each has its own story – from the tiny rainbow palace to the fortress of thunder – but they all fit together to complete the landscape.The Weather Millers’ Country functions as a place to come and play with familiar interfaces such as swings and roundabouts, but it is also an educational resource. Each weather mill strikes a balance between play and effect: joy in the act of doing something rewarded with a magical experience. The simple mechanics that create the weather are powered by energy harnessed simply from play. Specially chosen plants bring o life the stories of the Weather Millers, and have been designed to translate the fantasy map of this curious parallel world into a physical terrain.
