Koshigaya Park Playground, Campbelltown

Direct Client Solutions Plus
End Client Campbelltown City Council
Sectors
- Public Domain & Community
Services
- Remedial
- Structural
Year 2026
Location Campbelltown, NSW

Last Project
Next Project

Project and Partnership

Koshigaya Park Playground is a new community play destination in Campbelltown, designed to create a distinctive landmark while expanding play opportunities for local children of all ages. Drawing on our established working relationships with the project architects and Landscape Solutions (Solutions+), and experience delivering similar projects together, we brought a collaborative approach to the project that supported a successful outcome.

Inspired by Campbelltown’s longstanding sister-city relationship with Koshigaya, Japan, the playground features a striking nine-metre folded crane sculpture, drawing on Senbazuru, the Japanese tradition of folding 1,000 paper cranes.

The crane doubles as an interactive play structure, incorporating climbing nets, jungle ropes, a basket swing, slide, talking tube, pommel crossing and xylophone. A separate junior play area caters to younger children, with a flying fox, swings, slide and climbing rope. Twenty cherry blossom trees complete the setting, reinforcing the Japanese influence.

Delivery

Northrop provided structural engineering design for the folded crane, including the steel structure, connections and concrete pile foundations, along with construction phase services to inspect the works and verify construction against the design.

As the design developed, several refinements were made to the crane’s dimensions, swing and footing design, along with the addition of rope play elements beneath the wings. Working closely with the architect and builder, we assessed each change using structural analysis software, undertaking the necessary calculations and updating our design to maintain structural integrity and ensure the structure remained practical to build, while preserving the original design intent.

Our collaborative approach and ability to respond to evolving design requirements helped translate an ambitious architectural concept into a practical, buildable structure.

Impact

The new playground creates a distinctive community space where children can play, explore and connect, while celebrating Campbelltown’s longstanding relationship with Koshigaya, Japan. The striking crane structure gives the park a unique landmark and brings something a little different to the local landscape.

For Northrop, the project was an opportunity to apply our structural engineering expertise to a more unconventional design, helping bring an ambitious play structure to life. Seeing the crane move from concept sketches through to construction has been particularly rewarding.

The finished playground stands as a testament to the value of collaboration, thoughtful engineering and innovative design, and will provide enjoyment for the Campbelltown community for years to come.