Anthill Creations
Merging Creative Design And Sustainability
Nonprofit Anthill Creations was launched in 2017 by five architecture students with a shared credo: “Play is for everyone.” Anthill builds sustainable playscapes in public spaces and government schools for children from underserved communities. Its designers source materials like discarded tires, ropes, cable drums and plastic blocks from scrap markets and upcycle them, significantly reducing the cost to furnish a playscape to approximately $3,500. “This cost doubles when you don’t use sustainable materials,” says CEO and cofounder Pooja Rai.
How Anthill Meets The SDG Pledge:
India is experiencing a rise in sustainable practices, but there’s room for improvement. Its resource recycling rate currently falls between 20% and 25%. Constructing upcycled playgrounds, Anthill’s vision overlaps with the following goals:
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
VISION IN ACTION
Anthill completes its complex construction process—from identifying space to completing site surveys to procuring funding—in one month, with only five of those days spent on physically building the playground, says Rai.
Anthill’s creative output isn’t limited to playgrounds. In 2020, when the Covid-19 lockdown left kids stuck at home, the Anthill team devised a solution for immersive indoor play: Play in a Box kits. The product includes self-learning games designed to cultivate physical development, social-emotional skills and artistic expression.
With close to 3,000 pending requests for playgrounds from schools, Anthill trains local volunteer groups in how to build playgrounds themselves, using the organization’s design library of around 150 different playground items. “We want to make everything open-source, and we want more people to build playgrounds.”
Impact
153,093
Children given playground access
Playgrounds built to date across 18 Indian states
283
Play in a Box kits distributed since the onset of the pandemic
11,593
We as a society don’t give importance to play. We feel that classroom education is more important, and play is a distraction to education. What we don’t understand is that play complements education, and there are so many skills that a child learns while they are outside playing.”
Pooja Rai
CEO & Cofounder, Anthill Creations
SDG 4: Quality Education