During the week we went to the community to show the kids the video we made of last weeks painting work. They really enjoyed the movie and wanted to watch it again, unfortunately it started to rain so we all had to run home.


Two days later we returned to show some more kids the movie. This time we also did a small workshop to get the kids ideas on the design of a new structure for the playground that we will get built. We made a model of pieces of the structure that we could make, platforms, bridges, ladders and so forth. While the kids played we wanted to get them to really think about the design, without giving them the ideas of what they should do. So we asked them lots of questions: ‘if you do it like that, how do you get up there?’, ‘what if it’s too long for the space? can we make it fit?’.

While we are there Pi Un and Ploy discuss making a low wall around the playground, this is Pi Un’s idea of how we can keep the sand from washing away.

We bought some plants and on Saturday everyone helped to plant them, the volunteers also brought some from their own gardens. This week even more members of the community are getting involved. More sand has also been delivered and more and more of the site is now covered. The place really looks great!

Old Minburee Market Playground: Week 7

When we visited the site to put up posters this week we saw that another load of sand had arrived and that Pi Un and other members of the community were already shifting the new sand onto the playground! These guys never take a break!



Over the past week some of the construction workers at CASE have built some timber benches for the playground.

This morning we are taking them to the site for the kids to paint them.
Its going to be a competition, the team with the most spectacular bench wins! The kids rush to form teams and claim their benches for painting. Some GE volunteers help the kids mix the colours they want and everyone starts painting.

All the teams have different strategies, some start with painting on a base colour, others try stripes or get straight into painting a beach scene!
Now it’s time for the finishing touches: the kids are very inventive with their methods of decoration, circles are made by dipping the base of a bottle in paint and using it like stamp, leaves and flowers are used as stencils and sand is used to really bring the beach to life!

Meanwhile the other volunteers have been busy sanding the old pieces of play equipment, preparing them for a fresh coat of paint while others have continued levelling the ground under the direction of the unstoppable Pi Un.
The benches are finished and all look amazing! We have to wait until the playground opening in three weeks time for the winners to be chosen.
Now its time to paint the old playground swings and slides. The kids chose the colour schemes (after some fiery debate!) and everyone pitches in to paint. Pretty soon they are done, they look great, better than new!

Finally everyone cleans up and takes another look at their masterpieces. It really show how creative and talented these kids are, its something for the whole community to be proud of.

Minburee Old Market Playground: Week 6

After a week away I am amazed at the change that has occurred to the site. The rubble from the around the site has been redistributed over the lowest part. Ploy tells me that most of this has been done over the week by local people on their own initiative. Sand has been delivered to cover the rubble in preparation for the football field. This week we have the most volunteers to date and we have prepared posters showing them the work done so far and illustrating the tasks and numbers of people needed for the work today.


As the roads are too narrow for cars and trucks to enter, the sand is dumped at the entrance to the community and carted into the site. One team fills the barrows, one team carts the barrows to and fro, one team flattens the sand over the rubble at the site and another team continues cleaning the remainder on the site. The sand is quickly moved and the whole team continues to level the remainder of the site.





Pi Un and Ploy discuss getting some asphalt to cover the levelled ground, protecting it from erosion and making a safe playing surface.

Old Minburee Market Playground. Week 4.

When we arrive at the old market the kids greet us and show us the plans they have made over the past week.


We had planed to make the first part of the day about marking out and then move to a little cleaning after lunch. The kids really surprise us, however, with how eager to clean they are. As soon as the brooms are unloaded the kids take them off and begin sweeping and cleaning.



So we change our plans and one group continues to clean while another group goes to mark out with string all the areas that they made in the model of the previous week and the kids' new drawings, designating where the football field, volleyball court, gardens and playground will eventually be.



The cleaning continues to build in strength with other, older members of the community joining in and shifting lots of rubble and rubbish. One local leader, Pi Un, calls Ploy aside to tell her of some concerns community members have about how prone to flood the site is. He suggests some alterations to the plan to include levelling of the site to prevent the current on-site ponding.




By the end of the day the site has changed a lot. Everyone is tired and dirty but satisfied with all that we had done.

Old Minburee Market Playground Week 3: Model Making!

'Let’s try mocking up your playground first!’

This week we have moved the workshop in a different location. During the week one of the community leaders suggested that we do this as there was some conflict between the locals near the playground site. We are concerned about what this means, is this project causing tensions? What does this conflict mean for the future use of the site as a playground? Ploy assures me that it was the community leaders who chose this site to begin with.

Once the kids have arrived we set up outside but it is again too hot and we move into an adjacent house offered to us. There are not so many kids this week and none bring old packaging or plants clippings for model making materials as we suggested in the poster. This is most likely because we put up the posters later than on previous weeks.


Ploy tells the kids about the plan for this week, to make a model of the playground. We lay three big sheets of cardboard on the floor. Based on the drawings of the previous week we have divided the playground into 3 main areas, one part for sports fields, one part for playground equipment and one part for gardens and planting. The kids choose which area they want to design and move to that board.


Very soon everyone is getting very involved, discussing and making all the things they can imagine from plasticine, cardboard and wire. Some kids go out into the community to get plant stalks to use as trees.





By the end of the day the model looks amazing. Some of the ideas represented include: football field (complete with high fence and stadium seating), basketball court, volleyball court, see saws, slippery dips, swings, merry-go-rounds, a sandpit, fishponds, romantic seating, fountains, a bike path, kiosk, toilet, even a small theatre. Ploy later told me that one kids had also advised her that they will have a vegetable garden for all the community to use.

Old Minburee Market Playground, Week 2.

I arrive in time for the second week of the 'playground as catalyst' project. Ploy a young architect in her second year at CASE is running the project, she has given me some background and we have visited the community earlier in the week to put up posters advertising the saturday workshop.

When saturday arrives, we meet the kids at the playground site and go to a nearby building for shelter from the heat. Ploy introduces the activity and distributes the cardboard and crayons for drawing. The kids gather on the floor and draw their ideas of how their playground should be. Ploy encourages them to draw not just the playground but also all the things they like to play.

The kids draw in four groups, some are shy to begin, but Ploy and the GE volunteers prompt them and soon they are discussing amongst themselves and drawing so much they all flip over the cardboard to use the other side!


The drawings are very diverse, there are birds-eye views of football fields and gardens as well as side views of plants, slippery dips, swings and other play equipment. There are also more whimsical and abstract drawings.

Ploy and the volunteers then go to each group in turn and ask what each drawing is, the kids explain and label the drawings as well as write their names on it. they do this one by one so that everyone gets to hear the ideas of each group.


Once everyone has had a chance to explain, each group holds up their drawing and the others clap. the ones who get the loudest clap get to have their picture on the poster for next week.

A Playground for kids in the Old Minburee Market

The first project that I am participating in with CASE is a playground for the kids who live in the Old Minburee Market. CASE has been involved with the Old Market communities for sometime as it is only a short walk from their office. Chumchonthai Foundation funded CASE to look at the feasibility of doing a project with the community, after spending time with the locals the concept of a playground was raised and a suitable site chosen. A multinational finance corporation with offices in Bangkok also approached CASE seeking a suitable project for its office workers to participate in as part of a volunteer community engagement programme. The corporation will fund the costs of all community design workshops and the construction of the playground itself.

Below is an outline of the project as presented by CASE to the corporation.