Challenge

Communities that lack accessible places for children to play have disproportionately high healthcare costs overtime as unhealthy lifestyles become embedded in daily life.

Solution

When safe play spaces are locally available with a 1 mile radius, children grow up with more active and healthy lifestyles and communities have lower healthcare costs.

Results

Our approach was to empower local kids to redesign their community by facilitating multiple design workshops with a  gamified design process. To meet health and safety needs of the Covid 19 pandemic, we designed a “workshop in a box” and mailed design kits to community centers and families. We played together and prototyped via Zoom and across social pods. After hearing from each of the designers, the ideas were refined while maintaining the intent. The final form for the project took the shape of a modular system of reconfigurable outdoor furniture that can connect and combine in a multitude of ways so that visitors to the Play Path always have a unique play experience.