Archikidz PLAY[ground], Vivid Festival Sydney

Combine four thousand kids, three days and unlimited play and what you get is countless unexpected ideas about how we can make our cities more liveable, enjoyable – and playable.

A collaboration with not for profit organisation Archikidz in partnership with Sydney Living Museums, PLAY[ground] temporarily transformed the historic Hyde Park Barracks in the heart of Sydney for the city’s annual Vivid Festival.

Kids were inspired to play in different ways by interactive installations, like ball pits, climbing ropes, ribbon forests and repurposed materials. And they were invited to play with ideas, sharing their suggestions for creating more engaging cities in the ‘Little House: Big ideas’ cubby house.

While there were plenty of references to jet packs and robots, many kids spoke about the importance of green space, how apartment living allows you to make the most of the city and environmentally-friendly transport they’d like to see ‘when they grow up’ – inspiring fresh thinking for public engagement and future public realm projects.

Client

Sydney Living Museums

Location

Gadigal Country
Sydney, Australia

Status

Temporary

Year

2015

Collaborators

Archikidz、Junglefy

Design team

Jon Hazelwood, Sharon Wright, David Tickle, Georgia Darling, Riley Field, Calum Nesbit, Jess Lock, Chris Kelly

Imagery

James Horan, Vin Rathod

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“PLAY[ground] was a collaboration with Hassell Young Designers and a diverse and dynamic team of creatives, who have a collective passion for making our city more equitable and sustainable for future generations.”

Vanessa Trowell Archikidz Director

>6K visitors during the event

>4K kids sharing great ideas

>100 volunteers helping out

Low cost, low impact event
Old parachutes, sailing spinnakers, timber pallets repurposed into play equipment
All materials repurposed, returned or recycled at the end
30+ free workshops covering topics from growing green walls to parkour lessons

2016 Winner, ‘Australian Institute of Landscape Architects – Australia’s Best Playground – Innovation Award’

PLAYground by #HASSELL and #Archikidz- a pop up play space for kids in the heart of Sydney. Over 1500 on the first day - absolutely manic. This little tree with recycled strips of sail provided respite #exhausted #vividsydney #vividideas #colour #playability #adultplayground

People