4DESIGN 17 SuperSpace

Credits
  • Pou Auaha / Creative Directors
    Craig Spence, Craig Spence, Will Grant
  • Ringatoi Matua / Design Director
    Will Grant
  • Ngā Kaimahi / Team Members
    Jarn Bulling, John Ditchburn, Janelle Grant
  • Kaitautoko / Contributors
    Ant Erwin, Craig Spence
  • Client
    SuperSpace
Description:

Having both spotted how kids were boxing off areas in homes and building spaces of their own out of cushions, pillows, cardboard boxes, inspired us to design a magnetic, modular play set to allow kids to create and build whatever their wild imaginations can dream up!

In a world increasingly dominated by screens, toys that encourage creativity and imaginative play are of increasing value. The motivating factor that inspired the creation of Superspace was to create a toy that would get kids to put down their screens and engage with the physical world without the limited possibilities of traditional toys.

There are no rules, and no right or wrong way to use it. Kids learn through experimenting, building, and can create new structures each and every time. It stimulates their mind and allows them to dream of things they would otherwise might not have thought of.
The 24 panel set comes with 4 different shapes where the only limits are your child's wild imagination.

This modular play set, encourages children’s creativity and imagination. One minute it's a fort, the next it is a castle, a spaceship, a café, or even a play for a puppet show!

We believe kids need a little space of their own, and with SuperSpace, we designed just that - a space they can control, can share, can make their own decisions in, and escape to different worlds. Inside their SuperSpace space, kids can do whatever they choose - chill, read, draw, listen to music, play with other toys, have a slumber party, put on a show… the list is endless!

After almost a year of design and development, many concepts, trials and material exploration, we come up with a sustainable alternative to traditional EVA foam panels. Foam panels were trailed on our initial concepts. However, after trying to reduce weight and density while maintaining panel rigidity and a strong focus on environmental credentials, we knew we had to come up with a different solution.

That's when we tuned to Recycled PET felt. Made from recycled PET bottles, it's not only very light weight, but also very ridged. Using custom made, 100% natural Bamboo dowels, we created a strong, yet flexible (to avoid snapping) outer frame to capture the magnets inside the sealed plastic connector. The diametrically opposed, high strength neodymium magnets are free to rotated, snapping to any panel, at any angle.