October 6, 2025 • 4 mins
We're on the hunt for the best playground in Mid Canterbury thanks to EA Networks. Luke caught up with Ryan Archer from Playco - the largest builder of playgrounds in NZ. He began by asking what's the stuff that goes into making a great playground?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What makes a playground great. Somebody who could answer that
is from a company named Plaqueo, the oldest builders of
them in New Zealand. For over forty years. They've been
putting in swings and slides, well over four thousands up
and down the country. Not too many forts arounds that
wouldn't have their name pressed on the side of it.
Ryan Archer is the general manager with play Co. It
(00:22):
was lucky enough to catch up with him and started
by asking how they bring an idea together and piece
it all together, and he said, well, it starts with
the sort of stuff that you want kids to be doing,
the sort of movements that you're wanting to elicit.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So play categories could be physical types of motion, so climbing, sliding, spinning, calling,
or it could be sematic so you'd be designing to
anautical theme or natural nature theme or whatever.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, like the boat at Caroline Bay, the boat.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
At Caroline Bay, the shipwreck of a boat. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Is it a bit like buy a car in that
the color also matters.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, the color can definitely play a big role. There's
a theme at the moment to lean in towards nature
and leaning towards natural tones. We we full avoid of
advocating for pops of color. I'm sure plenty of the
listeners would agree with children where they will talk to
the kids about which playground you want to go today,
and suddenly my kids will turn around and go on
(01:26):
the one with an orange slide, And if everything was
uniform in a single color, it becomes very difficult to
communicate with with that younger audience.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, so we've got to inject a bit of wiggles
flare into everything we do. That's the go, Yeah, right on.
That Is there something that every playground or every great
playground and you'll view needs If.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
You were to turn around and ask my kids, my
kids would say to you a slide. Every playground needs
a slide, Yeah, it does.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Are they into the twirly whirly ones or just the streets?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
They couldn't care. They couldn't care any of the lift.
They just want the opportunity to fly, and more often
than not, if it's opened, they want the opportunity to
run up that slide.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Because that I find the plastic ones you get better
grip on the steel ones they can be they can
be a lot more tricky to navigate.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, it look slides are a difficult product to design
well that the safety standards have sort of a freg
requisite list of requirements for what a slide needs to be.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Ideally one that you don't need a skin graft after
you go down in shorts.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Where that's definitely the case, and you'll have seen the
change throughout the decade. You know, years gone by, we
had fiberglass slides and there's still somewhere around today and yeah,
five glass like to open up and splinter the children's
legs as they slide down. So that's why there's been
a theme of moving away from that and in some
more modern material to.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Write a passage if you grow up in ripple areas
in particular. I'm sure this might seem like an odd question,
but are playgrounds designed just for kids?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I'd like to suggest not. We work closely with children
in terms of actually designing a brief for what they'd
like to see included. But again we're huge advocates that
everyone can play, and myself, personally, I love to turn
up to a playground and see parents and caregives engaged
with children playing with them, be that sitting at a
(03:14):
shop front window trading little pieces of woodship for ice creams,
or be that playing the floor is lave or tag
with their children. There's nothing better for the community than
seeing that intergenerational play take place.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So in that case, when you're sitting there putting it together,
do you need to think can that swing? Can that slide?
Take a dad board?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah? Look at it very much enters the realm of design,
and you come back to is there something for everyone?
And there's probably a key takeaway there and that there's
no judgment in play. Kids don't see rules, although they
might sit down and make them collaboratively together. They see
past the color of skin, they see past disabilities, age barriers.
(03:59):
You know. All they to do is engaged with others.
They want to learn, they want to socialize, and they
want to have fun.
What makes a playground great. Somebody who could answer that
is from a company named Plaqueo, the oldest builders of
them in New Zealand. For over forty years. They've been
putting in swings and slides, well over four thousands up
and down the country. Not too many forts arounds that
wouldn't have their name pressed on the side of it.
Ryan Archer is the general manager with play Co. It
(00:22):
was lucky enough to catch up with him and started
by asking how they bring an idea together and piece
it all together, and he said, well, it starts with
the sort of stuff that you want kids to be doing,
the sort of movements that you're wanting to elicit.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So play categories could be physical types of motion, so climbing, sliding, spinning, calling,
or it could be sematic so you'd be designing to
anautical theme or natural nature theme or whatever.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, like the boat at Caroline Bay, the boat.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
At Caroline Bay, the shipwreck of a boat. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Is it a bit like buy a car in that
the color also matters.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, the color can definitely play a big role. There's
a theme at the moment to lean in towards nature
and leaning towards natural tones. We we full avoid of
advocating for pops of color. I'm sure plenty of the
listeners would agree with children where they will talk to
the kids about which playground you want to go today,
and suddenly my kids will turn around and go on
(01:26):
the one with an orange slide, And if everything was
uniform in a single color, it becomes very difficult to
communicate with with that younger audience.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, so we've got to inject a bit of wiggles
flare into everything we do. That's the go, Yeah, right on.
That Is there something that every playground or every great
playground and you'll view needs If.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
You were to turn around and ask my kids, my
kids would say to you a slide. Every playground needs
a slide, Yeah, it does.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Are they into the twirly whirly ones or just the streets?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
They couldn't care. They couldn't care any of the lift.
They just want the opportunity to fly, and more often
than not, if it's opened, they want the opportunity to
run up that slide.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Because that I find the plastic ones you get better
grip on the steel ones they can be they can
be a lot more tricky to navigate.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, it look slides are a difficult product to design
well that the safety standards have sort of a freg
requisite list of requirements for what a slide needs to be.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Ideally one that you don't need a skin graft after
you go down in shorts.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Where that's definitely the case, and you'll have seen the
change throughout the decade. You know, years gone by, we
had fiberglass slides and there's still somewhere around today and yeah,
five glass like to open up and splinter the children's
legs as they slide down. So that's why there's been
a theme of moving away from that and in some
more modern material to.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Write a passage if you grow up in ripple areas
in particular. I'm sure this might seem like an odd question,
but are playgrounds designed just for kids?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I'd like to suggest not. We work closely with children
in terms of actually designing a brief for what they'd
like to see included. But again we're huge advocates that
everyone can play, and myself, personally, I love to turn
up to a playground and see parents and caregives engaged
with children playing with them, be that sitting at a
(03:14):
shop front window trading little pieces of woodship for ice creams,
or be that playing the floor is lave or tag
with their children. There's nothing better for the community than
seeing that intergenerational play take place.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So in that case, when you're sitting there putting it together,
do you need to think can that swing? Can that slide?
Take a dad board?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah? Look at it very much enters the realm of design,
and you come back to is there something for everyone?
And there's probably a key takeaway there and that there's
no judgment in play. Kids don't see rules, although they
might sit down and make them collaboratively together. They see
past the color of skin, they see past disabilities, age barriers.
(03:59):
You know. All they to do is engaged with others.
They want to learn, they want to socialize, and they
want to have fun.
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