Designing within a national park is not like designing anywhere else. The playground had to honour the Rocky Mountain aesthetic the Town of Banff has carefully cultivated, serve a community of residents and an international visitor base simultaneously, minimize disturbance to a protected ecosystem, and account for wildlife as genuine users of the space. These were not competing priorities – they were the design brief.
Real Life developed the playground layout by working directly with existing site conditions, routing the design around established trees and habitat. Structure placement and open-edge details were informed by municipal and Parks Canada guidelines to reduce the risk of wildlife entrapment. The design balances features that photograph well against layered play experiences that reward repeat visits – built to feel as though it grew from the landscape rather than was placed on top of it.
