Shopping centres have changed a lot over the years. They’re no longer simply places to shop; the best retail destinations give people reasons to stay, eat, meet and spend time together.
A well-designed children’s play area can form an important part of that experience.
Tigerplay designs, manufactures and installs bespoke soft play areas for shopping centres, retail parks, designer outlets and mixed-use developments. Every project is designed around the space, the people using it and the wider look and feel of the destination.
Creating a more family-friendly retail environment
Each shopping centre soft play area showcases different approaches to the requirements of being hard wearing and entertaining enough to keep little shoppers active and entertained, whilst their parents take a break. It works well to situate the soft play area near a coffee shop or food court for maximum dwell time.
Soft play designed for busy shopping centres
Retail play areas bring their own set of challenges.
Unlike a traditional indoor play centre, the space will often be open to the wider shopping mall and visible from several directions. Sightlines are important, particularly where parents are supervising children from nearby seating areas.
The play equipment also needs to withstand a high level of daily use while remaining easy to maintain and visually in keeping with the rest of the centre.
When we design a retail play space, we’ll usually consider things such as:
- visibility across the play area
- the flow of people around the surrounding retail space
- different age groups and abilities
- durability and ease of maintenance
- seating and supervision
- available ceiling height and footprint
- proximity to cafés, restaurants or food courts
- the centre’s existing interior design and branding
- accessibility and inclusive play
- how the area will look when viewed from surrounding shops and walkways
The result should feel like part of the shopping centre rather than something that has simply been dropped into it.
Bespoke design rather than off-the-shelf soft play
Shopping centres are often highly designed environments, so a standard brightly coloured soft play frame isn’t always the right answer.
Our play areas are designed specifically for each project.
That might mean creating a subtle play space that complements a premium retail environment, developing a strong theme around the destination’s brand, or using bespoke timber, soft play and interactive features to create something that becomes a recognisable feature of the centre itself.
We can also design separate areas for babies, toddlers and older children where the space allows.
The aim is always the same: to create a play environment children genuinely want to use without compromising the wider look and feel of the development.
Tigerplay shopping centre projects
We’ve worked on retail play environments in the UK and internationally for many years.
One of our best-known projects is Busy Beez at centre:mk in Milton Keynes. Rather than creating a conventional shopping-centre soft play area, centre:mk wanted something visually distinctive that fitted comfortably within the wider mall.
We developed a bespoke bee-themed environment with separate areas for younger and older children, tactile play features, activity panels, slides and a carefully considered low-level layout that maintained visibility across the surrounding retail space.
Other Tigerplay retail installations have included the Antonine Shopping Centre in Glasgow, Livingston Designer Outlet near Edinburgh and CastleCourt Shopping Centre in Belfast.
More recently, we designed an indoor playground for SHOP PARK Cap Costières in Nîmes, France, where the brief was to create a family-focused play space suited to a busy modern retail environment.
No two projects are quite the same, which is why we start with the space and the objectives rather than a catalogue of standard play equipment.
Making the most of the available space
A shopping centre play area doesn’t necessarily need a huge footprint to make an impact.
Some of the most successful spaces come from making intelligent use of an awkward or previously underused part of the centre.
Our design team will look at the available floor space, height, access, surrounding businesses and visitor flow before developing a concept.
Depending on the brief, this might include:
- soft play structures
- slides and climbing features
- sensory and tactile play
- interactive wall panels
- role play
- timber play structures
- baby and toddler zones
- seating and parent areas
- bespoke branded features
Everything is designed around the space rather than trying to force a pre-designed structure into it.
From initial idea to installation
Tigerplay can support the whole project from the earliest stages.
We work with shopping centre owners, operators, architects, interior designers and development teams to understand what the play space needs to achieve.
From there, we can take care of the concept development, detailed design, manufacture and installation.
That joined-up approach is particularly useful in retail developments where the play area needs to fit alongside other contractors, building works, opening dates and wider interior design requirements.
Planning a play area for your shopping centre?
Whether you’re looking to improve an existing family area, make better use of an underused space or create a completely new attraction within a retail development, we’d be happy to talk through the possibilities.
Every Tigerplay project starts with a conversation about the space, the audience and what you want the finished play environment to achieve.
Talk to our team about your shopping centre or retail play project.
