Press Release
Silver A' Design Award in Playground Equipment, Play Structures and Public Park Design Goes to Ural Forest Children Playground Equipment by Taiga
Taiga recognized for playground equipment, play structures and public park design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 24, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Ural Forest Children Playground Equipment by Taiga has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Playground Equipment, Play Structures and Public Park Design category. The recognition forms part of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the Silver A' Design Award Means
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
More About Ural Forest Children Playground Equipment
The Ural Forest series features modular playground equipment designed as geometric abstractions of local nature. Large asymmetrical tree structures, bear themed playhouses, and ant inspired elements facilitate varied play scenarios for multiple age groups. Constructed from stainless steel and larch wood, the units are engineered for extreme weather using parametric software and reinforced foundations. The modular system ensures efficient transport and assembly. Features include internal spiral labyrinths and communication pipes, combining physical challenge with social interaction.
About Taiga
Taiga is a design and manufacturing firm specializing in high-quality outdoor play equipment and environments that facilitate children development. Operating on the principle that playgrounds serve as essential zones for early childhood development rather than mere utilitarian installations, the company integrates physical, social, and sensory stimulation into every project. Central to the Taiga philosophy is the concept of "managed risk." By distinguishing between age-appropriate challenges and safety hazards, the design team creates environments where children can safely test their physical boundaries and build self-confidence.
Award Record
Taiga is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.
About the A' Playground Equipment, Play Structures and Public Park Design Award
The A' Playground Design Award is an international industrial design competition recognizing good playground designs by best playground manufacturers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to playground equipment designers, play structure engineers, public park planners and landscape architects from all countries. Typical entries include swing sets, slides, climbing structures, seesaws, merry-go-rounds and sandboxes. The awarded playground equipment designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/playground
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/177891
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/177891
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!177891
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/375277
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://www.instagram.com/taiga_playground/
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Ural Forest Children Playground Equipment
- Function
- Children Playground Equipment
- Category
- Playground Equipment, Play Structures and Public Park Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Kids and Architecture
- Colors
- Lavender, Dim Gray, Dark Olive Green, Gray and Rosy Brown
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Taiga
- Country
- Russian Federation
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #177891
Credits
- Team
- Vyacheslav Kobelev, Daria Efremova, Mariia Pokataeva, Georgii Meskhi, Anton Voronchihin, Ivan Grehov, Sergei Spiridonov and S&P Landscape Studio
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Ural Forest is a series of children playground equipment designed in sculptural, geometric shapes to compliment contemporary urban landscape. The large Tree structures encourage active play in all weather conditions, helping children experience controlled risk responsibly. Smaller playhouses Bears and Mushrooms support roleplay, light activity, and interaction between different age groups. The Ants and Leaves open structures offer safe conditions for physical training to the youngest visitors.
- Inspiration
- The company is located in the Ural region, covered with forests of deciduous and coniferous trees, inspiring series. The Trees were designed asymmetrical to look different from every side, just as in nature. Among them live Bears - common residents of the forest. Chanterelle mushrooms are famous and loved in the region, inspiring the smaller playhouses. Ants placed among leaves are tiny, but they are the most hardworking and strong forest tenants, teaching children collaboration.
- Research
- We joined the Iset River embankment improvement project as play environment experts at the invitation of the S&P landscape firm. The site was based on the architects' proposed "Ural Forest" concept. Our team's subsequent work transformed this idea into a fully-fledged project with unique engineering and well-thought-out play scenarios. Zoning and interaction between objects were established, making the site vibrant, logical, and safe.
- Challenge
- The goal was ambitious: to create a play environment to be an urban attraction point for residents and city visitors, and a new iconic visual landscape of Yekaterinburg city. To tackle it we designed every element representing local symbols of the nature of the Urals. Another great challenge was engineering, production, and pre-assembly testing. Teamwork of experts, iterative design, on-site upgrades and supervision after installation is what allowed us to deliver high quality and reliable solution.
- Realization and Technology
- Equipment is made out of stainless steel and larch wood to withstand extreme weather conditions. To tackle transportation and assembly, the structures are divided into modules that fit standard trucks to be assembled on site as construction sets. Stability of the Trees construction was ensured by enhancing the main beam and foundations according to wind and snow loads calculations. To facilitate the workflow the parametric software was used and universal joints solutions implemented.
- Operation and Interaction
- The series is designed to host games for children of all ages. The youngest ones are physically training and play cooperatively in a separated zone with Ants and Leaves equipment. In the larger zone of Forest, older children enjoy active play in the Trees. They climb the inner spiral labyrinth, through interchanging closed spaces and open lattice structures, to slide down the impressive slides as a reward. Inside the Bear playhouses there are distance communication pipes that foster roleplay.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in 2018 and finished in 2025. The address: 15, Stepana Razina st., Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Region, Russia, 620063, 56.825640, 60.608933
- Specifications
- Single Tree 8400 x 4300 x 9700 Two Trees set 18900 x 7800 x 9700 Three Trees set 19500 x 6300 x 11300 Bears 4700 x 1400 x 2500 Two Mushrooms set 6200 x 3100 x 4900 One Mushroom 5300 x 3200 x 2000 Three Ants set 4100 x 2600 x 1200 Ant slide 3300 x 2400 x 1900 Three Leaves set 2700 x 2300 x 1900 Leaf platform 1400 x 2200 x 700 Leaves and logs set 4900 x 4500 x 1300 Leaf with speaker 2200 x 600 x 1400 Climbing Leaf 1 1500 x 600 x 1900 Climbing Leaf 2 1700 x 1400 x 1800
- Keywords
- Playground equipment, children development, active play, social play, collaborative play, public space, wooden architecture, landscape design, nature, local identity
