ABSTRACT
Helen & Hard was founded in 1996 in Stavanger, Norway, by Siv Helene Stangeland and Reinhard Kropf. Currently the practice has 31 staff members from 10 different countries and offices in Stavanger and Oslo. Helen & Hard’s portfolio comprises projects ranging from single family houses to large public buildings, from offices and multi-family housing projects to master planning. The Geopark Playground was self-initiated and designed by Helen & Hard for the Stavanger European Capital event in 2008. The project is located in the centre of Stavanger directly adjacent to its lively waterfront and Petroleum museum. Placed instead of a formal representative square as an arrival point to the museum, the project discards the commonly expected characteristics of formal public space. It does so by giving full priority to a provocative design experiment based on the informal and itinerant theme of playground.
