The Play Pod ™ – A collaboration with Hoyne
A Rubix Cube of Activation
Challenge
The Play Pod ™ was born from a collaboration with Hoyne for the 2018 Sydney Design Festival, responding to the theme ‘Call to Action.’ The team recognised that Sydney, like any metropolis, has many under-utilised spaces dotted around the city, leading to the question – how could we activate and better utilise these spaces to engage communities? The structure needed to be easily identifiable, modular, adaptable, light, easily relocated and easy to use, so that one or two people could open and close it. It also had to be entirely self-contained and have space to store the different accessories needed for each activation over the course of the 10-day design festival, with curated activates occurring three times a day. The Play Pod had to be constructed in such a way as to handle issues such as inclement weather, transportability, vandalism and the gruelling requirements of work fit for the public domain. These requirements married together a unique range of trades and hardware to enable it to stand firm.
Insight
The Play Pod ™ successfully increased community interaction and engaged a diversity of audiences – children and parents; students; and adults. After the festival UTS requested to re-use it as part of the library services, utilising it as a Learning Pod to engage students. The humble plywood not only formed the shell of the pod, but it also determined the size of the box seating, which are an equal portion of the standard plywood sheet. This module worked so well that every seating box, peg and signage box fitted perfectly into the pod to make storage of the loose items a breeze.
Solution
The Play Pod ™ can be manipulated to suit the needs of users and easily relocated. With the ability to be placed anywhere and support a diversity of activities and activations, the Play Pod ™ provides a solution to increase the social value of space, by providing a platform for use, day and night. The design used peg board and elements that could be plugged into the structure to instantly transform the space. The small cube seats were also designed to be multipurpose and could be used as tables, signage or shelves. Although this was a prototype product it needed to look and feel like a well considered object, not just something temporary. It was covered in a polished cladding that absorbed and reflected the activity of it’s urban location, was durable and looked eye-catching and professional. Identification of The Play Pod ™ on site was also a major consideration to establish itself in the landscape, day and night solved by a fluorescent pink flooring and light box.
Photos: Hoyne & Scott Carver
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2.4Metres Squared
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2018Completion date
Collaborators
Hoyne, Property NSW, DecPR, Taylor, Rest Interior, Adams, Workshop 28, McConaghy Boats, Novotel Hotels and Resorts, Unico Creative, Monkey Baa Theatre Company, The Children’s Book Council of Australia NSW, UTS, Kvadrat Maharam, Sydney Urban Institute, Starleaton, Alucobond
Awards
Sydney DrivenxDesign Award: Marketing, Branded Experience, 2018
Sydney DrivenxDesign Award: Pop-Ups, Display Exhibit & Set Design, 2018
Success measure
Provided free events to 350 visitors
Design inspiration
Design inspiration
Inspiration for the Play Pod was in part provided by Scott Carver’s work on the Novotel project in Haymarket, as well as the Festival’s theme ‘Call to Action,’ – where we were determined to literally look outside-the-box
Details
Details
Provided free events to 350 visitors
What end-users say
What end-users say
A fantastic and engaging concept
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News & Media
Life-Size Rubik’s Cube Unveiled at the Sydney Design Festival
The “Play Pod”, a life-sized Rubik’s cube, is the brainchild of Scott Carver and Hoyne and was conceived in response to the theme of this year’s Sydney Design Festival...
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