October 6, 2025 • 3 mins
Ryan Archer is from Playco, the largest builder of playgrounds in NZ. Luke caught up with Ryan to learn about the fun of involving kids in the process of developing new playground equipment.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
But tell me, wow, the children blea no need for
this guy to get better work stories. Ryan Archer is
with a company called play Co, the oldest builders of
playgrounds in New Zealand. For over forty years, they've been
putting in swings and slides and over four thousand sites
up and down the country. They lay claim to a
(00:21):
feu here in mid Canterbury, armed with the motto everyone
Can Play, it was neat to sit down with Ryan
and ask what makes a playground great? You can listen
back to the full chat on our podcast a little
later this morning. We've heard from some of the kids
about essential ingredients, but from Ryan, is there one piece
of playground kit in particular that stands out over the
(00:44):
years for.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You listening unique pieces all across the country. Down in Wanaka,
there's quite a large feros immense style dinosaur staircase with
the slide going down the neck of this deck of saurus.
Super straightforward, super big piece of play If you strip
away all of the cladding which is the dinosaur, but
the theme of the dinosaur is the draw card for
(01:06):
the park, and.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Then will it would be Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So it's got to be thirty to forty years old
but timeless in a sense, and I imagine counsel will have
a hard job ever replacing it.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Have you ever let kids design their own playground?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, we do this almost on a weekly basis when
we sit down with school to design briefs with schools.
Schools will sit down and picture a senior leadership team,
typically year six students, but we have worked with as
young as yet three, and we'll get them and at
work here and we're sitting around the boardroom table and
we've got a really fun and playful environment, all our
(01:41):
walls and whiteboards. So the kids eyes light up when
we'll give them white wall markers, and so they go
draw all over our walls and we let them loose
and they'll immediately design slides and swings, and then they
dive really deep into thematic design and they'll start designing
berg hours with slides coming down as the saw saw
(02:04):
large cats that have swings hanging off their tails, and
kids dive really deep into thematic play.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I've got that image from The Simpsons. I think it
was a Christmas episode where they asked Lisa's class to
design the new Furbie toy, and they're all still behind
that that's that one way screen, you know, watching all
the all the kids reactions and whatnot. Is that like
how it plays out for you on a.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Weekly basis, It's refreshing. And then you know, probably once
a month we'll sit down and consolidate all the feedback
we've got the birds and apply it to R and
D And there's a process that follows. But eventually, when
the market starts to see new equipment which is derived
from the child's brainstorm twelve months earlier, that would.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Be the greatest claim to fame as a cat if
you were able to say I was the one who
came up with that. Do you even give them the
opportunity to name it? To be the namesake?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Look, we asked them to put names under all of
their sketches because, as you can imagine, you've got young children,
and you know what it's like when they do you're
a sketch. You need a thorough description of what you're
looking at. The child two or three years ago designed
a pizza climber, which is a pizza shaped climbing wall
with the pizza pieces being the steps. We tweet that
(03:26):
twist to that and developed it further into its own
climbing wall and it's now part of our modular range.
And thence, unfortunately that child had moved on from the
school by the time that the school purchased that piece
of play your own equipment. But I imagine they have siblings
at the school and as you say, they've got a claim.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
To fame ultimate breaking rights. Cheers Ryan. Let us know
where you find the best playground in mid Canbury, all
thanks to eat A Networks. How can it we Ashburton
on Facebook
But tell me, wow, the children blea no need for
this guy to get better work stories. Ryan Archer is
with a company called play Co, the oldest builders of
playgrounds in New Zealand. For over forty years, they've been
putting in swings and slides and over four thousand sites
up and down the country. They lay claim to a
(00:21):
feu here in mid Canterbury, armed with the motto everyone
Can Play, it was neat to sit down with Ryan
and ask what makes a playground great? You can listen
back to the full chat on our podcast a little
later this morning. We've heard from some of the kids
about essential ingredients, but from Ryan, is there one piece
of playground kit in particular that stands out over the
(00:44):
years for.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You listening unique pieces all across the country. Down in Wanaka,
there's quite a large feros immense style dinosaur staircase with
the slide going down the neck of this deck of saurus.
Super straightforward, super big piece of play If you strip
away all of the cladding which is the dinosaur, but
the theme of the dinosaur is the draw card for
(01:06):
the park, and.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Then will it would be Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So it's got to be thirty to forty years old
but timeless in a sense, and I imagine counsel will have
a hard job ever replacing it.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Have you ever let kids design their own playground?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, we do this almost on a weekly basis when
we sit down with school to design briefs with schools.
Schools will sit down and picture a senior leadership team,
typically year six students, but we have worked with as
young as yet three, and we'll get them and at
work here and we're sitting around the boardroom table and
we've got a really fun and playful environment, all our
(01:41):
walls and whiteboards. So the kids eyes light up when
we'll give them white wall markers, and so they go
draw all over our walls and we let them loose
and they'll immediately design slides and swings, and then they
dive really deep into thematic design and they'll start designing
berg hours with slides coming down as the saw saw
(02:04):
large cats that have swings hanging off their tails, and
kids dive really deep into thematic play.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I've got that image from The Simpsons. I think it
was a Christmas episode where they asked Lisa's class to
design the new Furbie toy, and they're all still behind
that that's that one way screen, you know, watching all
the all the kids reactions and whatnot. Is that like
how it plays out for you on a.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Weekly basis, It's refreshing. And then you know, probably once
a month we'll sit down and consolidate all the feedback
we've got the birds and apply it to R and
D And there's a process that follows. But eventually, when
the market starts to see new equipment which is derived
from the child's brainstorm twelve months earlier, that would.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Be the greatest claim to fame as a cat if
you were able to say I was the one who
came up with that. Do you even give them the
opportunity to name it? To be the namesake?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Look, we asked them to put names under all of
their sketches because, as you can imagine, you've got young children,
and you know what it's like when they do you're
a sketch. You need a thorough description of what you're
looking at. The child two or three years ago designed
a pizza climber, which is a pizza shaped climbing wall
with the pizza pieces being the steps. We tweet that
(03:26):
twist to that and developed it further into its own
climbing wall and it's now part of our modular range.
And thence, unfortunately that child had moved on from the
school by the time that the school purchased that piece
of play your own equipment. But I imagine they have siblings
at the school and as you say, they've got a claim.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
To fame ultimate breaking rights. Cheers Ryan. Let us know
where you find the best playground in mid Canbury, all
thanks to eat A Networks. How can it we Ashburton
on Facebook
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