Mission
As the invention of the smart phone kicked off in 1994 through IBM, humans have dramatically started to incorporate mobile phones into their daily including young children. A study by the National Trust Fund has found that children spend half the time playing outside that their parents did, with an average of just over four hours a week. This compares unfavorably with 8.2 hours for their parents when they were children. What’s more, a study by the uk government found that 10% of respondents have not even been in a natural environment such as a park, forest or beach for at least a year.
Prolonged smart phone usage also causes faulty posture such as forward neck posture, slouched posture, or rounded shoulders. Sustained forward neck posture can cause injury to the structure of the cervical and lumbar spine, as well as ligaments. This is partially due to posture unawareness, yet more stemmed from inactivity of certain ligaments and muscle groups in the children due to excessive time spent sitting and looking at the phone indoors.
How can we get children, teenagers and young adults (5-20) to get excited to play outside in the contemporary era?
How can we get children, teenagers and young adults (5-20) to engage unused muscle groups through creative activity?
An Athletic Tree House Park
What if we can create a society of kids in the sky in the form of a treehouse? A native land for kids tailored for the best experience a child could ever ask for; flying, climbing, mazes and slides! The concept revolves around getting your hands dirty and overcoming challenges that nature provides.
This athletic park utilizes a gigantic tree with a trunk diameter of around 70m, holding an indoor structure separated into floors and an outdoor arial section allowing visitors to engage with outdoor activities in the sky. Visitors enter/start at the bottom of the tree and work their way upwards by completing different stages of activities aimed to develop different muscle groups. Each stage targets a different muscle group, allowing the children to target all muscles unconsciously through athletic, creative activity.
Indoor Sections (Stages 1-10)
Back Muscle Activity: Rowing
This floor involves children/guardians to get on wooden rafts that float on water. There will be a maze aspect to this floor along with some river rafting features that might try to shake you off the raft.
The act of rowing on a raft heavily engages all heads of the back muscle group. The back muscles are separated into many different heads such as the Latissimus Dorsi, the Trapezius, Levator Scapulae and the Rhomboids. The act of rowing is mainly targeted to develop the Latissimus Dorsi, yet all heads are generally engaged at all times, also including core strength and grip strength.
Chest Muscle Activity: The Wood Block Maze
Chest muscles involve the act of pushing things away from you. The chest muscles are also separated into 3 different heads: the upper (Clavicular Head), the middle (Sternal Head) and the lower head (Abdominal Head).
This maze involves visitors to push wooden cylinders in with their arms, triggering certain doors of the maze to open up allowing visitors to move through. The trigger act involves no electricity or high technology, allowing children to first hand feel the movement of the trees colliding with each other for a further synesthetic experience.
Leg Muscle Activity: Victorian Queen Lily Pad Pool
The leg muscles are separated into the Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Gluteus, Gastrocnemius, and Soleus. As the leg muscles hold very high density in the body, it is known to be the biggest muscle groups in your body. Acts of balancing, squatting, jumping and walking/running all engage the leg muscles, which are strategically incorporated in the activity through jumping through gigantic lily pads.
On your way across the pool, you will have to pass through lily pad monsters blocking your way, making the experience more of a gamified process.
