An intuitive counterpart of a traditional playground enlivens London’s Fen Court

Within the quiet seriousness of London’s Fen Court, British design studio McCloy and Muchemwa has injected the chaos of children’s laughter in the form of a playful urban seating that pulls both young and old alike. The Urban Playground is installed as part of the recent London Festival of Architecture that enlivened the British city’s public spaces with talks, events, exhibitions, and delightful showcases. As part of the event, a series of urban furniture is scattered across various locations within London, each responding to the festival’s current theme ‘In Common’; the idea hopes for an urbanism that fosters togetherness and transparency. As per a recent column published on STIR by London-based writer and curator Riya Patel, this edition of the architecture festival is seeing engagement centered on resistance and upholding everyday realness over vanity and ego. Urban Playground too nods to the uniting theme as it acts as “an urban experiment, establishing a common ground between children and tight-suited city workers,” as per Steven McCloy, co-founder of local design studio, McCloy and Muchemwa.

Constituting two blocks—in cork, mirror and blue linoleum—from which various fluid forms are carved, the modular installation with both the base blocks and the extracted units are laid along a pedestrian path. The presentation is designed as a ‘trail of breadcrumbs’ that allows people to engage with it as they would in a playground, except it isn’t a traditional playground. “The trail”, McCloy tells STIR, “invites visitors to discover 'hidden gems' at Fen Court including a spiritual labyrinth and the sculpture Gilt of Cain, which commemorates the abolition of slavery, by the artist Michael Visocchi and poet Lemn Sissay.”

Playful niches puncture the base block where people of all ages explore it as they like. Fluid contours, hiding pockets and mirrored surfaces make it a children’s haven, while adequate seating in proximity to the business district creates a place for office goers to rest and unwind. The scattered units reveal a range of fascinating forms—from cleverly rounded seating tops inviting kids for a quick climb, to zig-zag surfaces, sliding elements, tiny labyrinths, and cavernous volumes. The height of the units vary too. Some have very low head clearance that only a child can access, others have apertures that allow adult to bend over if they wish to explore it. The experience of the installation is close to playing a game of peek-a-boo—as one follows the trail, surprise and laughter ensues.

“We enjoy the juxtaposition of childhood and play within such a grown-up part of town, there is a different sense of movement and definitely a different soundtrack with laughter and joyful screams," McCloy adds.

Urban Playground follows a simple thought: There is no right or wrong way to play here, nor is there any explicit narrative to follow—instead there is a loose framework to imaginative and physically varied play. McCloy observes, “As designers, we were interested in creating non-traditional play structures that cater inclusively to both younger and older audiences—sometimes they would have things in common, sometimes they'd have differences we thought. There was also the exploration of abstract design geometry, which we were interested in as an architectural concept, and we were keen to see how certain shapes translated into inhabitation and play!”

The chosen materials for building the public installation are in response to the driving multi-sensory nature of the work, and the ease of fabrication. CNC-cut OSB boards and timber battens sculpt the shell of the blocks while linoleum and cork forms the outer cladding, in addition to non-shattering mirror panels taking up a few surfaces. The modular and reconfigurable nature of the installation allows for easy transportation whereas an undefined program encourages new contexts and future roles. Where does Urban Playground go from here, STIR asks McCloy? “As with many previous temporary installations from the London Festival or Architecture,” he relays, “it is planned that elements of the Urban Playground will be distributed to one or more permanent new homes at schools, community centres, or cultural institutions around the city.”

Urban Playground is open to everyone until the end of August 2023.