| 91 Resilio Studio One of Resilio’s most significant recent projects demonstrating that approach is the transformation of Kaipātiki Reserve. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE As councils and designers push beyond catalogue playgrounds and toward fully bespoke natural play environments, Playsafe is becoming a critical partner in ensuring complex designs meet the rigorous safety and compliance standards required for public use. Playsafe founder and director Adam Stride says the company’s recent work on the Kaipātiki Reserve Playspace shows how early collaboration can turn ambitious concepts into safe, buildable outcomes. Playsafe spent more than two years working alongside Resilio Studio, Auckland Council, and Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara on the Parakai reserve, which is now recognised as one of the country’s most signi icant natural play projects. Adam says the scale of the work, and the cultural depth embedded in the design, made compliance both challenging and rewarding. “This was a completely bespoke playspace built around traditional Māori play philosophies and activities,” Adam says. “There’s no catalogue for this kind of equipment, so our focus was on helping the team navigate every standard they needed to meet while still protecting the integrity of the design.” The project incorporated a suite of māra hūpara elements encouraging tamariki to learn physical and practical skills, such as rope swinging, balance, agility, and interaction with natural materials. Playsafe supported the design team from early planning through to inal certi ication, applying NZS5828 design and compliance expertise to structures including the Moari Rope Swing, Tubeslide Tower, Patikitiki, and the Dancing Snake Swing. Adam says designers and landscape architects bring exceptional creativity to these spaces, but relying on catalogue equipment is very di erent from delivering completely bespoke natural play elements. “Our job is to make compliance simple. We help designers understand what’s possible, by maintaining play value without compromising compliance and safety, and how to avoid expensive rework further down the track.” Learnings from Kaipātiki have since carried into other major projects, including Nelson City Council’s Te Pā Harakeke Reserve which went on to win Recreation Aotearoa’s 2023 Healthy Park of the Year award. Adam says these experiences are strengthening industry capability and lifting con idence in natural play design philosophy across the country. Adam has also co-authored New Zealand’s irst Nature Play Design and Build Guideline with Gisborne District Council, making this resource freely available to the wider industry. The guideline supports community-led natural play builds using local materials and resources. As New Zealand’s only fully independent and impartial playground compliance agency, Playsafe works across new and existing play environments nationwide. Its services include proactive inspections, compliance reporting, and safety audits for councils, schools, childcare centres, and private operators, along with expert-witness support for serious incidents. “Our reporting systems are designed to be clear and practical, giving operators a simple and straightforward path to making improvements,” Adam says. “Without the right information, people often start on the back foot and spending money they don’t need to. We help them stop, assess, and make safe and cost-e ective decisions.” After 20 years designing and manufacturing playgrounds, Adam founded Playsafe to close the gap he saw between inspired design and safe delivery. “Everything we do is about ensuring play spaces are delivered and then maintained safely,” he says. “If we can support better design and smarter decisions, that bene its everyone.” multiple perspectives into the process, you get much richer outcomes,” he says. “You have to stay true to shared aspirations, respect different world views and be open to change.” Cultural narratives, including geothermal activity, the nurturing symbolism of the para fern and the historical significance of pātiki in the Kaipara Harbour, are embedded throughout the play space. Much of the material used was repurposed, including timber felled during Cyclone Gabrielle, reinforcing the project’s regenerative ethos. Beyond Kaipātiki, Resilio continues to work across Auckland on reserves, streetscapes, coastal projects, and stream restoration, particularly in areas heavily impacted by flooding. For Jack, the long-term goal is creating landscapes that are adaptable, meaningful, and capable of evolving alongside climate and community change. “Regenerative design isn’t about quick fixes,” he says. “It’s about setting up systems that allow places, people and ecosystems to recover, adapt and thrive over time.”
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