Geopark

A playground of transformed technology

How do we move from an oil-fuelled past into something more sustainable? How can we use all the technological innovation and expertise that the oil industry has provided us with to create a greener future? And even better – bring children on board, and create a sense of curiosity and wonder about these things?

Location Stavanger, Norway
Client Stavanger 2008 / European capital of culture
Status Completed (2008)
Typology Playground
Area 2448 m2

Initiated by us, and finished in 2008, the Geopark playground on Stavanger’s waterfront was supposed to be a one-year installation only – as part of the city’s European Capital of Culture programme. An instant success, it has become one of Stavanger’s main attractions, and we hope to make it permanent.

The park is a miniature recreation of the Troll field oil reservoir, revealing the geological layers hidden under the seabed. It was created digitally with assistance from local experts, seismic and geological. We then had workshops with groups of children who discussed what activities the different layers should offer. For example, The Troll oil layer has become a skate park, while its geological folds double as street art walls.
The Geopark is built from elements that the oil industry no longer needed – recycling, reshaping and transforming them into something genuinely playful.

Team

Helen&Hard Siv Helene Stangeland, Reinhard Kropf, Randi Hana Augenstein, Barbara Ascher, Dag Strass, Mercedes Pena, Robert Reichkendler
Collaboration Norsk Oljemuseum

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