Playground castle closed as earthquake risk, Weta to the rescue

Kowhai Park s castle is in for a major makeover with kids having a say in how it will look. Photo/Stuart Munro

If the input from the kids is taken seriously, a pending rebuild of one of the key structures at Kowhai Park in Whanganui will be something a bit special.

A Whanganui District Council working party has been looking specifically at the castle at the southern end of the playground, a task brought on after an engineering assessment found the structure was well below accepted building standards and considered another earthquake-prone building.

The Kowhai Park working party was set up under the previous council and focused on projects established by Rotary and Lions clubs in the playground.

Now councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackay heads the group, which includes two council managers, representatives of the youth council and those service clubs.

Mr Chandulal-Mackay said an Opus report commissioned by councils property team identified the castle met just 20 per cent of the New Building Standard (NBS). The report recommended a full structural assessment and upgrade, which is projected to cost up to $100,000 over the next five to 10 years.

"The purpose of the working party is to address this issue.

"The feeling was that if this money has to be spend, then itd make sense to look at improving the overall look and feel of the castle to make it more user-friendly while appealing for young children at the same time," he said.

Mr Chandulal-Mackay and two youth councillors met with local schoolchildren to see what they liked and disliked about the castle and what improvements they would recommend.

"We went to St Johns Primary School, Whanganui Intermediate School and Tawhero School. Everything from the sensible and do-able to the weird and wild was suggested."

These suggestions were then passed to Alex Falkner, who has been with Weta Workshops for some time and worked on films such as The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and Avatar.

Mr Faulkner is now living in Whanganui and was interested in undertaking some concept designs, which he presented to the working party last month.

Mr Chandulal-Mackay said it was too early to release those designs, but they featured things such as thrones, tunnels and climbing frames.

The idea is to make the castle far more interactive.

The parks and reserves team will engage a building engineer to undertake a closer structural assessment to see where the priorities are. Obviously, with the 10-year plan process under way, were trying to work within that timeframe.

He said as the Lions and Rotary clubs had long-term involvement in Kowhai Park, the working party was keen to see them involved.

"We want it to be as involving of the community as possible."