An award-winning outdoor environment rich with learning opportunities
Southport, Queensland
Recognised by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects for excellence in playground design that captures the hearts of families and communities.
The Nest Early Education Centre of Excellence sought to create an outdoor environment that would set a new standard for early childhood education spaces. The vision was clear: design a space where children could direct their own play, where every element served as a learning opportunity, and where nature was woven into every aspect of the experience.
Working closely with the centre's educators and leadership team, Wearthy developed a design that would become the benchmark for nature-based early learning environments in Queensland.
"Our outdoor environment is rich with built-in learning opportunities that allows the children to direct and guide their own play; freeing up our educators to work alongside the learning that is happening."Debra North Director, The Nest Early Education Centre of Excellence
Every element of The Nest's outdoor environment was carefully designed to support child-directed learning and deep nature connection.
Natural materials and plantings create an immersive outdoor learning environment that connects children to the rhythms of nature.
Open-ended spaces that invite children to create their own play narratives, fostering imagination and independent thinking.
Thoughtfully designed spaces that enable children of different ages to play together, learning from and supporting each other.
Age-appropriate challenges that allow children to test their limits safely while building confidence and physical competence.
At The Nest, we applied our Ecology of Play framework to create spaces that honour children's innate need for unstructured time, freedom to choose, and endless possibilities. The result is an environment where every child can discover their own potential through play.
Spaces that allow children to simply be, without every moment managed or optimised.
Environments that support independent decision-making, even if choices lead to failure.
Spaces that whisper "what if?" instead of dictating "you must."
Book a discovery call to explore how we can design a bespoke play environment that serves your community's unique needs.
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