AWARDS AND PUBLICATIONS

Get Outside has received recognition for a number of children’s play environment designs. We’re also actively engaged in writing publications that advocate for play spaces that maximise learning through engagement with the natural environment of Aotearoa New Zealand.
 
AWARDS

NZILA Pride of Place Awards 2015: Finalist in the category of Sustainable Design for The Experience Trail at Waitakere Transfer Station Learning Centre by Jill Rice, Get Outside Ltd in association with Auckland Council "This clever project integrates education and a vast range of sustainable initiatives to create a holistic and detailed approach to a great community space".

                 

Ministry for the Environment Green Ribbon Awards 2015: Finalist for The Zero Waste Experience Hub at Waitakere Transfer Station Learning Centre, with Experience Trail by Jill Rice, Get Outside Ltd, in association with Auckland Council, in the two categories of Educational and Community Leadership and Public Sector leadership 

NZRA Outstanding Park Award 2010, Potter Children's Garden, Auckland Botanic Gardens, Manurewa, Auckland, by Jill Rice, Get Outside Ltd in association with Auckland Botanic Gardens staff.

Gold Award 2004, Mythological Maze of Maui children’s garden - The garden has a permanent home within the Potter Children's Garden by Jill Rice at the Auckland Botanic Gardens.  The "maze" is an interactive children's adventure garden inspired by the pūrakau/legend of Maui finding his father, Makeatutara. It takes visitors through lush native plants and high ponga walls, where the shady interior gives parents some cool, quiet time while their children explore the tunnels of the underworld. More...
                                                      Bronze Award 2001, A Kindy-Garden! A small play space designed                                                          by Jill Rice that showed how the traditional ideas of play house and                                                          sandpit could be blended into a natural setting to extend children's                                                          play and interaction with the natural world

NZILA Pride of Place Awards, Institutional Landscape Design
- Distinction Award 2013, Tranquil Garden, Rangitoto College, East Coast Rd, Mairangi Bay, Auckland
- Bronze Award 2008, Redeveloped play space, Mt Eden Kindergarten, Auckland




ARTICLES

Design for Play - Australasian Parks and Leisure Volume 25.1 Autumn 2022. Recognising children's innate drive to play, the role of adults and the environment in offering "affordances" for play is discussed in this article. Children are the experts at their own play, and play is very much about place, so following children's lead and the way that they connect with a particular local environment is important when it comes to design that will support their play. See by Jill Rice article here

The Child's Right to Play - Australasian Parks and Leisure Volume 24.3 Spring 2021. The article discusses the responsibility of local government planners and designers to promote and provide opportunities for children to play and engage with nature throughout our cities and not only in playgrounds, in line with Article 31 of UNCROC which recognises the right of every child to play. In this way our cities will be healthier places for all of us to live. See article by Jill Rice here

From Playgrounds to Play Gardens - Landscape Architecture New Zealand Autumn Issue. This article by Jill Rice looks at how school playground design has changed over the last few decades with more understanding of the importance of play, exploration and imagination in a child's development and suggests that children's play behaviour is affected by the environment around them. Click here for article.

Landscapes for Learning / Principals Today Magazine, Term 4 - 2015 . A discussion about the successful collaboration between landscape architect Jill Rice of Get Outside Ltd and the staff of  the BLENNZ Homai Campus which resulted in a new outdoor environment that delivers a wide variety of learning experiences for the blind and low vision students of the early childhood centre and school. 

Revisioning ‘waste’ as ‘resource’ Jill Rice of Get Outside worked with the Learning Centre staff at the Waitakere Transfer Station to design an experience trail that would excite children about the possibilities of recycling and repurposing discarded materials, and ultimately inspire them to re-vision ‘waste’ as ‘resource’. More...

As an accredited member of GDSNZ, Jill and her work with Get Outside have a presence on the GDSNZ website with more examples of projects successfully completed. Jill has been a landscape architect, garden designer, playground consultant and teacher for 30+ years and working in collaboration with other landscape designers through her company Get Outside and involved in every part of the design process. As co-chair of the GDSNZ Accreditation Board, Jill is an advocate for quality design and for a society that represents our unique Aotearoa NZ culture well. Jill regularly contributes to events from her own work history, and to discussions about how best to support the society's growth and the professional development of the accredited members. More...

PRESENTATIONS

Design and Future Trends - Play Design Journeys

October 2021

Click here for presentation

A Designer’s perspective on Pedagogy
March 2015

Click here for presentation.

IPA World; International Play Association Conference, September 13-16, 2017 Calgary, Alberta, Canada; “Unleashing the Power of Play”; Presentation: New Zealand Early
Childhood Centre Outdoor Design: creative spaces that maximise learning through engagement with the natural environment

Click here for presentation.