In collaboration with Kengo Kuma & Associates (KKAA), Earthscape is thrilled to introduce 木山 Moku-Yama (Wood Mountain) – a new collection of sculptural playground structures available through Earthscape Collections.
WHO IS KENGO KUMA?
Kengo Kuma & Associates is a world-renowned, award-winning Japanese architecture firm that is recognized as a leader in wood design and construction. Referencing historic Japanese building techniques and connections to the natural world, Kengo Kuma’s work explores materiality, light and transparency, nature, and time.
WHAT IS MOKU-YAMA?
Moku-Yama is a new playground structure that bridges art and play. The name Moku-Yama translates from Japanese to ‘wood mountain’ which aptly describes the impressive floating peaks and valleys of this unique form.
Moku-Yama’s shape mimics natural landscapes and the form provides creative play opportunities. It invites you to be an active climber and a peaceful observer. It offers the experience of great height, the challenge of a daring drop jump, and hidden quiet seclusion underneath.
Curious apertures of light pass through the tightly fit logs, dotting the ground with sun specks. The above and below play experiences stimulate senses in magical ways. Moku-Yama exposes the purity of natural wood materials and, like a mountain, gives perspective.
COLLABORATION
Earthscape’s initial design brief with Kengo Kuma requested an exploration of sculptural forms that blurred the lines between art and play. The KKAA team imagined more than a dozen possibilities for playground structures, creating sketches and models. Together with Earthscape, those ideas were explored further with an eye to play experience, safety, engineering, and constructability.
The back-and-forth collaboration honed in on the most promising concepts and Moku-Yama was chosen as the finalist. Refinements were made to the design to meet safety standards, with thorough reviews conducted by third-party consultants. Through detailed design and engineering, the overall aesthetic was elevated.
Moku-Yama will find its place in projects that value natural materials, a distinctive sculptural composition as well as open-ended and non-prescriptive play.
SAFETY INFORMATION
Moku-Yama is compliant with CSA-Z614 in Canada, and ASTM F1487 in the United States. It is designed for ages 5-12 years.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Further details about Moku-Yama are available through Collections.