Together We Play Tong Mei Road Children’s Playground

In Hong Kong, more than 600 small playgrounds serve as vital breathing spaces within the dense cityscape. Yet many of these spaces risk becoming outdated or underused if they fail to reflect children’s evolving play culture. We confronted this challenge head-on
through the government’s renewal initiative. Our task was to not only improve outdated facilities but also address a deeper issue: how to design a playground that responds to the hidden social games and community identity embedded in the site.

Through surveys, family activities, and children’s workshops, we uncovered a remarkable finding: generations of local children had invented an elaborate hide-and-seek game called Great White Shark. This discovery became the central vision — to create a playground that preserved collective memory while nurturing new forms of imaginative play.

We translated these insights into abstract playscapes inspired by marine worlds — dust storm zones, coral reefs, and tidal waves — designed to support social and imaginative play without prescribing outcomes. Elevated platforms and secret tunnels became stages
for children’s evolving games, while the abstract language left room for reinvention. By designing the process as much as the product, We empowered the community to see play not as a fixed program, but as an evolving cultural dialogue between generations.

Since its transformation, Tong Mei Road Children’s Playground has reclaimed its role as a vibrant social hub. Children now spend twice as long here compared to other playgrounds, reimagining their games while building friendships and shared memories. For AaaM, the project demonstrates how participatory design can restore public spaces as cultural carriers — repositories of community memory and catalysts for social connection. The greatest success lies not in the equipment itself, but in empowering children and families to shape the city’s most intimate and imaginative public spaces.