Play out: Little boro

Sawdust created Play Out as part of Little Boro during Middlesbrough Art Week, bringing a collection of playful structures and games into the town centre.

The space consisted of trampolines, giant chess, cornhole, rocking chairs and a game of “Naughts and Saws”. A basketball hoop took the form of the famous cooling towers at Haverton Hill, giving a familiar Teesside landmark a new role as part of the play space.

We also designed a series of modular benches where the back and arm rests could be moved and rearranged. This meant the furniture could respond to how people wanted to use the space, whether sitting alone, talking with friends or gathering as a group.

The project brought together our own designs with ideas from our friends at Better Block in Dallas, Texas. Their approach to open source placemaking and fabrication has been a big influence on our work, particularly their Wikiblock library of freely available designs for making furniture, games and other street infrastructure.

We adapted and combined these ideas with our own designs and a strong Teesside identity.

The project was about more than giving people something to play with. We wanted to explore how simple structures, games and furniture could change the way people use a town centre space and create more opportunities for people to interact with each other.

Everything was designed and fabricated by Sawdust in our Middlesbrough workshop, combining our fabrication skills with our passion for making better public spaces across Teesside that people want to spend time in.

You can explore and use the Better Block Wikiblock designs yourself through their open source library.

Play Out was part of Little Boro, a programme of activity for children and families during Middlesbrough Art Week.