Playground that Educates through Meaningful Play
The Qatar-TotalEnergies Playground outside the National Museum of Qatar is designed to provide a fully immersive and educational experience in which visitors of all ages can learn about the various energies deployed in Qatar from the oil, gas and liquefied natural gas to the renewable energies and electricity.
Playgrounds have become the new educational tool in Qatar. The memories revoked with the Old Building Park near the QPost is as precious to the parent as it is to the children who enjoys the novelties of the play area. The latest addition to playgrounds is the one at National Museum of Qatar which tries to educate the child and the uninitiated adult on the science behind the process of energy extraction and distribution. The Qatar-TotalEnergies Playground was inaugurated on December 4 by Her Excellency Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums and Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at TotalEnergies. It will provide a unique experience for families to explore and discover the story of energy in Qatar through meaningful play.
The playground is part of the partnership between TotalEnergies and Qatar Museums and was designed by Taylor Cullity Lethlean (TCL) with the construction work carried out by Ashghal.
It is designed to provide a fully immersive and educational experience in which visitors of all ages can learn about the various energies deployed in Qatar from the oil, gas and liquefied natural gas to the renewable energies and electricity. Sustainability is also addressed through topics such as carbon capture, recycling of polymers and road safety.
Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, said: “In a playful ecosystem children learn through play making knowledge accessible through experience to all age groups and backgrounds. This is one of many playgrounds that we have developed across the country, and hope our communities and visitors enjoy them by connecting with family, friends, nature and being outdoors. We are grateful for our partnership with TotalEnergies, where we can engage with the wider community and visitors to showcase Qatar’s rich heritage and by default enhancing the quality of our lives.”
“Together with culture, energy is an important part of Qatar’s history; and this family-friendly playground is a successful connection between culture and energy,” said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at TotalEnergies.
The playground’s maze-like architecture includes 15 interactive playing pods, one per energy and a series of crawl tunnels in the form of oversized ‘pipes’ for children form pathways. The playground also contains a water play area and aims to create a sustainable outdoor environment that is stimulated by human energy. Other features include dry mist fans arranged to provide more comfortable microclimates throughout the pods. Visitors can explore the playground via eight paths through the connected pods which include bridges, crawling tunnels, and net tunnels. The pods inspire by the oil look that we are familiar with in Doha and which further intrigues the player within us. The playground consists of 21 interactive games that have been custom-made abroad especially for the project and other non-interactive musical games such as the talk tubes, babel drums, Tembo’s, chilled slides, trampoline, and water games like water guns and water mushrooms.
Finally, the playground’s design is sustainable as it is partially powered by green electricity from nearby installed solar panels.
