unarchitecte's suspended nets form climbing forest park in china

a forest is a great place to unite with nature and fully enjoy it. what if a forest was an endless maze of climbing nets? well, you can go to mount luofu, which is located in guandun province of china, and just try it out. chinese architectural practice unarchitecte designed a 5000 sqm climbing park in the mountain’s forest for the local school, yet available for all the visitors, even adult ones.

building a climbing system, architects connected all the trees in the valley by hundreds of diverse white triangle nets to constitute a combination of various topological surfaces — a ‘white sea’ for kids to play carefree. hanging baskets fixed at different levels are linked to each other in several round yards at the bottom of the valley.

a slender ladder slides straight down from the top of one side of the mountain to an octagonal glass maze standing on a suspended square. two huge spiral tubes and hemispherical tents embrace students inside of them, floating among the crowns of trees as crystal jellyfishes drifting in the sea.

thanks to the system, children have intimate access to the great nature in different height, they can make houses for squirrels, sing with birds and enjoy the sunshine glistening through the leaves. in a rough-and-tumble play, they build up friendship and learn to help each other; in silence exposed in nature, they picture the truth of beauty.

no tree was cut down during the construction except for already withered ones. in the basic climbing system, every side of triangle net is fixed on a tree by solid steel wire ropes. if the gap between trunks was too wide or the trunk was not strong enough, unarchitecte set columns to serve as supplemental support posts.

the entire forest is a unit, with a second safety net under the higher system. multiple exits set on the ground and in the aerial structure were set for the convenience of circulation. in addition, the scope of activities is defined by yards and corridors on the ground, which is easy to administrate and to ensure the safety of students.