BREAKING NEWS: TWO MORE PLAYGROUNDS BECOMING PART OF THE “100 CREATIVE BDW PLAYGROUNDS FOR CHILDREN OF SERBIA” family!

BDW is happy to announce to have received confirmation for two more playgrounds to be donated to the children of Serbia in Summer / Fall 2014, as part of the “100 CREATIVE BDW PLAYGROUNDS FOR CHILDREN OF SERBIA” campaign, under the High Patronages of The President of the Republic of Serbia and the Mayor of Belgrade Mr. Siniša Mali, and the support of H.E. Mr. Pekka Orpana, the Ambassador of Finland.

 

Thanks to a donation of “NIS a.d. Novi Sad”, the old playground in the centre of the famous Kalemegdan park in Belgrade, in front of the iconic Cvijeta Zuzorić pavilion – in desperate need of reconstruction – shall finally get the long awaited complete reconstruction, along the new creative standards introduced by BDW in 2013 at the first Kalemegdan playground, only a couple of hundred meters away. Thanks to this new partnership between “NIS a.d. Novi Sad” and the City of Belgrade, the most important and frequented park and historic monument in the centre of Belgrade shall finally reclaim both of its traditional playgrounds for future generations, as it was custom for generations of people coming from all parts of the city to enjoy a play, as well as for tourists and visitors with children from all over the world. The partnership between BDW and “NIS a.d. Novi Sad”, has been made possible by the the company’s nationwide CSR project “Zajednici zajedno”.

Another innovative creative playground is planned to be built at the Ušće plateau, thanks to the donation of the “UŠĆE Shopping Center d.o.o.”, who recognized the importance of improving our children’s life, and joined BDW’s non-profit national campaign for building “100 CREATIVE BDW PLAYGROUNDS FOR CHILDREN OF SERBIA”. The Ušće playground is even more important because it signals the transfer of BDW’s ideas to New Belgrade, the new part of town, away from the old city centre, and shall in fact become the first ever children playground in what is the vast expense of the Confluence park area, which in self is an almost unbelievable fact. We are in any case very happy to become part of history thanks to this potential new partnership between “UŠĆE Shopping Center” and the City of Belgrade, and hope that this will not remain the only new playground in the immense and important Confluence park area.

As per rules of the campaign, the municipalities, in this case the City of Belgrade, shall match private donations with an equal investment in ground works, and both playgrounds will be constructed in cooperation with the Office for Utilities and Housing Services, and executed by the skilled professionals from Belgrade’s own City Greenery. Both projects will be directed and coordinated by Belgrade Design Week and designed by the young team of MADA Architecture Studio from Belgrade. The equipment shall be supplied by the award winning Finnish leaders in playground design – LAPPSET – who are once again offering non-profit conditions especially for Serbian children, thanks also to kind support of the Embassy of Finland in Serbia, and the personal initiative of H.E. Mr. Pekka Orpana, the Ambassador of Finland, who has taken it as his mission to connect Finland and Serbia in this generous creative way.

This is in the same time the proven team of creative partners, who so successfully produced BDW’s first Kalemgdan playground last year, to universal public acclaim, from both professionals and our most important users – our children.

Within the next few years, BDW wishes to donate Serbia one hundred not only new, but innovatively designed creative children’s playgrounds, built under strict non-profit conditions from all involved parties, to help the most vulnerable part of the Serbian population – our children. Belgrade Design Week’s reputation stands as guarantee that this will be no ordinary humanitarian project, but one where design and creative thinking take centre stage. Our unique approach enables the Serbian creative community to apply global creative industries’ latest trends and inventions, which is in a nutshell what BDW is famous for: we have been active in connecting, networking and capacity building, in Serbia and the world, continuously for ten years now. With the “100 CREATIVE BDW PLAYGROUNDS FOR CHILDREN OF SERBIA” campaign, our goal is to deliver innovative playgrounds, that will stand the test of time and usage under duress all over Serbia were it is needed, but in same time comply with highest EU environmental and sustainability standards.

We hope that these two new cases of public / private partnership in Serbia, will inspire and encourage other companies and institutions throughout the nation, to become part of our project with own proposals, initiatives and donations, and that very soon our dream of “100 CREATIVE BDW PLAYGROUNDS FOR CHILDREN OF SERBIA” will become reality in many other places throughout Serbia.