Interior Design Studio
Landing Playcentre 游乐场
LOCATION Unit 2, No. 12 Nexus St, Ravenhall
CATEGORY Playground
YEAR 2023
Landing Playcentre is a new indoor children’s playground and party venue in Melbourne’s western suburbs, born from the adaptive reuse of an existing warehouse. E&S Design’s interior fit-out responds directly to a client brief calling for a high-end, creative, joyful, clean, and above all safe environment for families. Embracing a “space and technology” theme, the design concept delivers a futuristic yet family-friendly atmosphere—one that sparks imagination in children while providing comfort and peace of mind for parents. The result is an immersive play space that balances playful aesthetics with practical functionality, transforming a rough industrial shell into a whimsical world of exploration.
Materiality and Child Safety
The material palette balances visual impact with practicality. A seamless vinyl floor stretches throughout the facility – its subtle sheen and clean finish meet the client’s high-end aesthetic, while its toughness and slip-resistance ensure the space remains safe and hygienic under heavy use. Likewise, wall paints and other surface finishes were chosen for durability and easy maintenance, keeping the venue looking crisp and tidy despite the constant wear of play. Safety considerations deeply informed the interior architecture. All significant edges and joinery are softly rounded; custom-built curved wall forms replace any sharp 90-degree corners to prevent injuries during energetic play. This curvaceous design language is repeated from the reception desk to the café counter, creating a consistent look and feel. Not only do these gentle curves protect running children from bumps and bruises, they also contribute to a friendly, futuristic ambiance that appeals to kids and adults alike. In essence, the space feels safe by design, without ever looking institutional – a critical balance for a leisure environment.
Floating “Wave” Ceiling Installation Layers of curved acrylic panels form a floating “wave” ceiling feature, suspended below the warehouse’s original roof structure to create an immersive, space-like canopy. One of the project’s most striking innovations is how it tackles the building’s exposed, soaring industrial roof. Instead of adding a conventional flat ceiling – impractical given the warehouse’s height and construction – the designers suspended a series of lightweight, curvilinear acrylic panels at staggered heights, forming a billowing wave-like canopy overhead. This artistic floating ceiling serves multiple purposes: it conceals the unsightly trusses, ducts and services above; it lowers the perceived ceiling height to a more intimate, child-friendly scale; and it amplifies the playground’s space-age atmosphere by evoking the feeling of both ocean waves and an outer space sky. Especially when illuminated with playful lighting, the acrylic sheets give the impression of a surreal, otherworldly sky floating above the play areas. By opting for this inventive modular solution, the design team dramatically transformed the warehouse interior’s character without the cost and complexity of constructing an entire new ceiling plane.
