The Imaginarium.
Client: Phillipstown Community Hub Charitable Trust, 2020
Place Cadets at Phillipstown Hub explored what can happen when children are trusted as active contributors to the design of their own environments. Over a two-week school holiday programme, tamariki aged five to eleven took part in a hands-on design thinking process to create a new play space for the Hub’s outdoor area. Instead of relying on traditional consultation methods, the project used making, testing and discussion as ways for children to communicate their ideas and aspirations for the site.
Through site exploration, sketching, model-making and full-scale prototyping, children identified what was missing from the space and developed a shared brief for a modular play structure. Their ideas evolved through collaboration and experimentation, moving beyond a simple list of play equipment to deeper conversations about experience, imagination, belonging and connection to place. The resulting structure, named The Imaginarium, reflected the children’s desire for spaces to hide, climb, create, perform and gather. This tangible process strengthened the children’s connection to the outcome and demonstrated how design can become a shared community activity rather than something delivered by experts alone.
The process made the design process visible and tangible for the children and wider community. Tamariki tested ideas at different scales, assembled parts of the structure alongside whānau, and saw their ideas become real through construction. The project also demonstrated how children can act as catalysts for wider community participation, drawing in caregivers, local organisations and community members throughout the process. Conversations with children following the project revealed a stronger sense of belonging, ownership and care for the space as a result of being involved in shaping it.
Featured in Landscape Architecture Aotearoa, 3 March 2020 - Child’s Play, The Imaginarium.
“It was hard because we had lots of good ideas - there were too much ideas so we had to think ideas together.”
- Alaynah, age 9
