Hoola Play Noema transforms a resort atrium in Bali into a kraken-inspired playscape. Vertical tentacles become slides, nets, and bridges across multiple levels. Combining narrative, craft, and safety, it demonstrates how playful design can animate architectural voids with cultural resonance.
Inside a narrow vertical void, a sea monster rises
Hoola Play Noema transforms a resort atrium in Pererenan, Bali into a multi-level playscape. Inspired by a kraken, the design integrates slides, nets, and tentacles into a sculptural journey where children climb, swing, and explore.
Designing play in a tower meant working against gravity
The site offered limited floor area but significant vertical height, with safety and accessibility as primary constraints. Materials had to be lightweight, durable, and safe under tropical humidity. The challenge was to create a rich play sequence in three dimensions while meeting strict hospitality standards.
A kraken became both story and structure
The playground unfolds as an encounter with a sea creature: its tentacles form climbing nets, slides, and bridges that thread through the atrium. This all ages play is zoned by level, toddlers on the ground, older children above, adventurous routes reaching higher. Timber, rope, and custom fiberglass forms create tactile variety and narrative depth. The design integrates safety and spectacle, ensuring the structure is both play equipment and sculptural icon. By fusing storytelling with craft, the playground elevates resort family spaces into cultural memory.
Craftsmanship anchored the kraken’s rise
Local artisans fabricated tentacles from fiberglass shells over steel frames, hand-painted to evoke underwater texture. Nets were woven from marine-grade rope, while timber decks formed durable play platforms. Structural fixings were concealed to maintain immersion and minimize injury risk. A vertical safety net enclosed the atrium void, meeting international standards. The installation was prefabricated in modules, lifted and assembled within the resort, minimizing disruption.
- A spiral blue net between tentacles creates a playful sense of suspension and wonder.
- Outside, a fisherman’s hut extends the play experience into the open air.
- Crafted from local materials, the swing unites structure and texture for playful safety.
- Exposed structure and soft design merge seamlessly with their surroundings.
- The playground shows how simple forms can spark endless imagination.
The kraken now lives in children’s stories of play
Noema Playground has become a landmark within the resort, drawing families for its unique mix of storytelling and movement. The design expands the atrium into a dynamic playscape where climbing, swinging, and sliding are safe yet thrilling. Parents observe from surrounding decks, reinforcing social interaction across ages. Beyond function, the playground demonstrates how crafted narratives can animate architectural voids, turning constraints into opportunities. It positions play not as leftover program, but as centerpiece, proof that design for children can hold conceptual depth, technical rigor, and cultural resonance.
