Indian architect builds over 250 playgrounds using tyres

The playground uses nearly 80 tyres, some of which are sourced from scrap yards or sponsored by tyre companies

Spotted: A 23-year-old student of architecture in the Indian city of IIT-Kharagpur has made over 250 playgrounds across the country by using colourful tyres from cars and repurposed two wheelers.

The playground uses nearly 80 tyres, some of which are sourced from scrap yards or sponsored by tyre companies such as Michelin, Yokohama, Apollo and Ceat, amongst others.

Pooja Rai made her first playground for children within her institution’s campus. Unlike most playgrounds, which have a standard slide, swing and see-saw, the ones built by Anthill also include punching bags, and elements such as climbers, octopus, elephants and horses, all made out of tyres. 

“We speak to children to ask them what they want and create accordingly,” said Pooja. The architecture student chose to use tyres as they are sturdy and safe, with no sharp edges.

In 2017, Pooja started Anthill Creations, an NGO based in Bengaluru that builds sustainable low-cost playgrounds for children using some of the 31 million tons of scrap material dumped annually at India’s landfill sites. 

The organisation believes that children learn a lot while playing naturally. They also think that playgrounds should not be a luxury and that they are something every child should have access to — for free.

To date Anthill Creations has built 260 playgrounds in 18 states across India. Anthill Creations also recently cleared dump yards in Bhubaneswar and Bengaluru, and turned them into community spaces.

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