Background
The City of Helsingborg had a vision of turning the old harbor and industrial area Oceanhamnen into a new vibrant district. With focus on the environment and sustainability, greenery and play were important elements in transforming the old dry dock into a park and playground. Despite the area’s geographical and historical location, the most favored theme for the new public park and playground was the jungle.
When the city’s youngest citizens, the children, were given a voice – they didn’t ask for a water-themed playground. Instead, they imagined the animals of the jungle arriving in boats from continents far away. Their imagination came to life through a new jungle playground, inaugurated in the summer of 2022.
Assignment
On behalf of the City of Helsingborg, Efterklang was assigned to take care of the sound environment in both park and at the playground. The assignment included sound design and soundscaping to level up the experience of play and interaction.
As the park is located in a busy harbor area, next to boarding lanes for the ferry connection to Denmark, the first step was to create the right acoustic conditions for the location. Therefore, we designed a noise barrier to reduce traffic noise. From a distance, the noise barrier looks like old shipping containers, which alludes to the historical use and identity of the area. Also, good acoustics is crucial for enabling a good sound design.
Nature itself was the source of inspiration and to create a true-to-life sound distribution we needed to figure out where we wanted to add sounds and why? In a jungle, the sounds come from a lot of different directions and in different scales. To mimic this, we used a 12-channel speaker system which enabled us to play different sounds in different places around the park.
Apart from the 12-speaker system, we also produced other creative sound installations. Four animal facts recordings that can be heard when putting your ear to a giraffe’s neck, and an interactive Gorilla that comes to life by pushing a button.
Result
Djungellekan is the first playground of its kind in Sweden and through tailored sound design and acoustic expertise, the old dry dock has been transformed into a green oasis filled with unexpected auditory adventures.
Awards
Ljudmiljöpriset 2022
Landmärket 2022
Red Dot Design Award 2024
Best of the Best
International Sound Awards 2024
Winner – Soundscapes & Ambient Sound
Winner – Universal Design
Winner – Social & Culture
Some jury statements
“The kids in this park are very lucky! What a wonderful sound environment that’s been built here and so well done. I really enjoyed listening and I can only imagine how inspirational and fun it would be for the kids actually IN it. Well done!”
“This is an outstanding project. The quality of the sound experience is very well crafted and thought of, with individual sound sources coming together to create a complex natural soundscape”
“Wonderful example of serving the community using the power of sound.”
