Kids Need Fun + Play: A Bamboo Kit of Parts That Lets Children Write Their Own Playground

Most playgrounds are catalogues: a slide here, a swing there, each object announcing exactly what it wants a child to do. Kids Need Fun + Play refuses the catalogue. It offers a single structural cube, two metres on every side, and trusts that a frame can be a climbing wall in the morning, a den by noon and a place to sit and talk by late afternoon. The project's core argument is simple and quietly radical: architecture already designs carefully for work and rest, so play deserves the same rigour, and that rigour lies in leaving room for interpretation rather than prescribing every move.

Designed by Olivia Webb, the proposal was Shortlisted in Re-imagining Play 2020. Rather than designing for one fixed site, Webb develops a modular system that can be assembled into different spatial configurations, from a lone unit on a tight plot to extended clusters on larger grounds. Simple structural frames take on the roles of climbing surfaces, seating, shelters, planters, sensory walls and informal gathering spots, keeping the scheme practical, economical and adaptable.

Frames That Suggest Rather Than Instruct

The rendered perspectives set the tone: two open frames fitted with planted shelves, a rope net and monkey bars, with children in silhouette clambering across them. What stands out is how little of the structure is dedicated to a single use. The planters soften the edges and bring growing things into reach, the net turns a void into a vertical route, and the bars span between posts as if they were simply another structural member put to work. The frame is the equipment.

This is where the project's thinking about childhood becomes spatial. Webb's premise is that forms, materials and spatial relationships shape what activities feel possible: a wall invites climbing, a frame becomes a den, a sheltered corner hosts conversation. By building those cues into a neutral armature instead of bolting on single-purpose objects, the playground becomes less about equipment and more about possibility.

One 2 x 2 x 2 Metre Cube, Many Readings

The isometric reduces the idea to its essence: a cubic frame topped with a slatted roof, a rope net stretched across one face, children perched and climbing at different heights. The accompanying plan and elevations show how each face of this 2 x 2 x 2 metre module can take on a distinct role, with a rope climbing wall on one side, a planter and seating on another, and sensory panels inviting touch. A single unit already holds a compact sequence of active, restful and tactile experiences.

The module's real strength is its capacity to be repeated, rotated and connected. One or two units suit a small site; several can extend into linear, folded or clustered compositions on larger ones. That means the playground responds to its context rather than stamping an identical plan onto every location, a sensible stance for a competition brief about reimagining how play happens in real places.

Repetition as Structure, Variation as Programme

Joining two gabled frames produces something closer to a small pavilion, with slatted seating, monkey bars and a rope net distributed across the bays. The four-bay elevation and plan push further: rope nets, sensory cylinders, slatted benches and a vertical screen occupy successive bays along a continuous run. Repeated vertical posts, horizontal members and diagonal triangular elements keep the structural language consistent, while each bay is free to perform differently. That balance between repetition and variation is the project's most convincing architectural move.

Material choice reinforces it. The technical drawings specify locally sourced bamboo members of roughly 100 mm, forming frames about two metres high and wide. The diagonals do double duty, bracing the structure while also becoming surfaces for climbing, screening, sitting and hanging other play elements. Sourcing bamboo near the installation site reduces transport demands and keeps the system grounded in available resources, an approach that suits a kit meant to be built and extended in many places.

Why This Project Matters

Kids Need Fun + Play makes a case that good play architecture does not need spectacle. Its intelligence lies in a modest unit, a local material and a clear structural grammar that children, rather than designers, ultimately complete. In treating the frame itself as the playground, Webb shifts attention from objects to relationships: between climbing and resting, planting and gathering, solitary exploration and shared games.

For communities with limited budgets or irregular sites, a system that scales from one cube to many and adapts to the ground it sits on is more useful than any signature structure. The proposal reminds designers that flexibility is not the absence of design but a deliberate form of it, one that gives children the freedom to decide what a space can become.

View the Full Project

About the Designers

Designer: Olivia Webb

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Project credits: Kids Need Fun + Play by Olivia Webb Re-imagining Play 2020 (uni.xyz).