Fosse Park Play Wall
Leicester
The UK’s first vertical activity wall, complete with a rubber floor, informed by a series of workshops.
Clients: The Crown Estate, Macgregor Smith
A large scale outdoor installation at Fosse Park in Leicester commissioned by The Crown Estate that included a graphic wall, a rubber floor design and a 15 metre window design for the UK’s first vertical children’s activity area. The colourful installation welcomes children and adults to the space by filling the area with positivity in the use of local cultural references and a warm and upbeat colour palette.


Commissioned by the Crown Estate, the brief was to bring some much-needed life and excitement for young people to the otherwise exclusively retail space of the new Fosse Park shopping centre in Leicester.


The designs had to be informed by the local area, in particular the wildlife and cultural history. In addition to our own research series of workshops were organised with two local school and an older peoples' social group. The intention of the workshops were to explore these themes in different ways with people who had grown up in the area.

The workshops generated many of the themes used in the designs, from the creatures imagined by the school children through to the industrial machinery that the older people all mentioned as being a factor in so many of the local peoples lives.

Also referenced in the designs are the pipework and barrels of Everards Brewery which stood on the site until it was redeveloped.


Macgregor Smith developed the idea of the vertical play wall in order to maximise the play space available. We worked our ideas around the play wall, ensuring the designs were visible both up close for children on the play wall as well as further away for those passing through the space.

