Description
The playground project of primary school Sint-Paulus Kortrijk was one of the 23 projects selected for the Flemish Environment Department's "Proeftuin Ontharding". Through this campaign, the Flemish government is committed to both climate adaptation and mitigation. After all, softening combats heat island effects, provides more space for water and ensures better air quality, greater biodiversity and more CO₂ storage, among other things. The school made a commitment to connect 90% of the roofs to a new rainwater system where reuse and infiltration into the soil are paramount. In addition, the entire playground+ car park (4000 m²) was demolished and reconstructed. The distribution of new tiling - green areas is 50/50. Of the total 4000 m², 1750 m² will be reconstructed as green zones. Some paving is still needed for various school activities. The rainwater that will fall on that paving will be collected and released into the ground via an infiltration system. In this way, the entire school site, including buildings, covering 4800 m² will become a zone where rainwater will be reused or infiltrated. For the redevelopment of its playground, Sint-Paulus worked on a comprehensive participatory process involving children, teachers, parents, contractors, play and landscape designers. The project realised ample softening with great attention to ecological design and increasing the collection capacity and reuse of rainwater. The children see this process happeningand consequently learn about it. We have also set up a water play area in the playground, where children get to work with water. It was also important for our school to think about the heat stress caused by excessive sunshine on a barren concrete plain. Planting trees, regional greenery and reducing concrete surface will provide shade andcooling in the long run.The air quality at and around our school is also important. Here too, more trees play an important role. They help capture our CO2 emissions, retain them and help filter the air.
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