Kompan Bloqx Playground

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The Kompan Bloqx playground in Brunswick, doesn't seem like much, with its slightly out of the way location and minimal amounts of equipment but under closer inspection, you can see that it's all about the design.

Imported from Denmark, the Kompan pieces look more like sculptures than climbing structures for children. They've been very deliberately shaped in response to the theory that today's mass-manufactured playground equipment, despite its happy colours and impressive amount of platforms, bars and slides, is actually too standardised.

The Kompan pieces aim to give children an appropriate challenge with which to develop their gross motor skills. It seems that during play, once youngsters have conquered a typical slide or ladder, all that's left is many repetitions of the same activity. So, the pieces chosen for this park have been selected because they allow children, through different stages of their development, to reinvent the way they play.


Take the whimsical 'bloqx' themselves. They are large
octahedrons connected together in a strange counterbalance.
The bloqx are covered with grips but have no obvious climbing direction so children need to problem-solve, cooperate and puzzle their way up and over the structure anyway they can.

There's a motorbike see-saw as well that oddly, has three seating positions. It's up the kids to figure out how to control the movement of that device and to have fun while they do.

A smaller tunnel slide and one ring-shaped carousel are also part of the collection. In the park's large swing seat, a local resident was seen one sunny day, curled up and enjoying a novel she had stepped out of the house to read.


A promised visit to the park might be a good trade for the kids if they've had to accompany you on a shopping run to the adjoining Barkly Square shopping centre. Barkly Square has stores like KMart, Coles, Safeway and McDonald's, as well as independants such as a deli, fishmonger, and Gangemi's Fruit and Vegetable store .

The Kompan Bloqx playground is behind the centre carpark, on Barkly Street. Take suncreen and hats when you visit or make it a short play because shade cloth hasn't been installed there. There's plenty of space to leave the car on the street or in the ticketed car park or the No 19 Sydney Road tram is the best option if you're travelling by public transport.

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