August-Sept-Oct  2025

By Carlo Tolentino, Aramiha Harwood, Ashleigh Dharmawardhana & Lucy Buxton

In 2024 members of the future play lab and urban design researcher Quentin Stevens (RMIT) explored areas of the Port Phillip Local Government Area in naarm Melbourne to locate potential sites for playful activations. One of those sites was an open grassy space close to the Tram Depot in South Melbourne, known as Kirrip Park. Located within the Montague precinct, this is an area of South Melbourne that has recently been redesignated as ‘mixed purpose’ by City of Port Phillip Council. Formerly zoned as Core Industrial land, Montague precinct is seen as strategically located with good access to public transport and close proximity to Melbourne’s CBD area. With what is seen as strong urban structure  (local schools, wide accessible roads and parking, public transport, a market close by), the precinct is proposed as ideal for urban renewal of residential spaces. 

City of Port Phillip, Montague Precinct Structure Plan: https://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/media/cxcbxagp/montague-precinct-structure-plan_executive-summary-introduction-vision-guiding-principles.pdf

While Kirrip park was not a possibility for us, City of Port Phillip indicated that it would be interested in playful activations that could be implemented in the Montague precinct. Carlo approached a local apartment development across from Kirrip park, The Gladstone, to see if a parklet would be of interest outside their newly built residential towers. The community outreach and partnerships manager at the Gladstone, Demi, agreed to have the parklet.

The Gladstone is a new build on Gladstone St, South Melbourne, operating under a ‘build to rent’ model of operation (the new apartments are not offered up for sale, but are rented out by the developers Greystar). The Gladstone provides 700 rental apartment homes in South Melbourne. Of this, Demi (the partnerships manager) estimated that – in early August – there was close to 50%occupancy of these apartments, with this set to increase significantly until the end of 2025. The three towers include various types of residences such as studios and one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments, with rental agreements available from twelve months up to three years. Within the three towers there are many community spaces with amazing views of the city. There are swimming pools, gyms, saunas, community kitchens, community bbq areas, internet/printing/workdesk offices, dog walking parks and even a dog-cleaning station(!).

Of course, putting a parklet outside the Gladstone – as a space for locals to linger and utilise – would put it in competition with the many  facilities offered by the apartment complex. In turn, the local area is still mixed in its use – i.e much of Gladstone St consists of mechanic workshops, car-spray booths, office blocks and other industrial service/manufacturing commercial properties. The role of a parklet to provide a connective space for community, in the middle of a new apartment complex and a street of garages and office-blocks, is a problematic one.

These problems have been presented to a class of 2^nd and 3^rd year Interior Design and Architecture students at RMIT (Parklet Interior Design Studio) to explore means and ways of utilising playful activations within the parklet.  In this studio, students explore how interior design can use qualitative human insights and analytical methodologies to develop useful and connective spatial environments that adapt and respond to their context and evolving user needs. Working collaboratively with the practitioners and researchers at the future play lab, the students are offered a practical, real-life project to think over and experiment with.

The parklet was delivered to the front of The Gladston on a cold, wet and windy Winter day at the end of July. On the same day, the Interior Design students met up with future play lab staff at The Gladstone and were given a tour of the towers by Demi. Given the amazing facilities, warm treatment by staff and apartment residents, and the awesome views of the city from the higher floors – it was hard to see how the parklet could attract people to use it, exposed as it was to the cold wind and rain.

It was hard for the students to understand, but the Parklet is a place of playful experimentation. Playful design would also give them permission to try things out. If they failed, then there would be valuable and meaningful learnings to be had from that.

An initial example of this is Ashbury, the social media character, created to help promote playful activations within the parklet on a calendar of dates through to October. More about Ashbury to come!…

The Seven Sins Festival – Fri Jun 20 & Sat Jun 21, 2025

“Okay, sorry, I’m just distracted, I’m like a child here.”

by Aramiha Harwood, Troy innocent, Lucy Buxton & Carlo Tolentino

RMIT future play lab were invited to participate in the Sinner’s Roast event at Prahran Market, which ran over two nights – Friday and Saturday 20th and 21st June, 2025. The future play lab situated an urban play activation within the market. The urban play was set in 2050, to invite festival attendees to imagine their lives and the role of markets for themselves, their local communities and society in general.

A small-scale LARP (live action role play) was played within the market. A character, Mr Lone Avocado, enlisted festival attendees into participating within the game – offering a drinks card if they successfully finished the game. He sent them to meet a roaming CityAI character (cosplaying as an android), within the interior of the market. The CityAI directed them to a creative placemaker, located by the luminescent garden. The creative placemaker finally led players to some tables, lit up by blacklight globes in the middle of the dark market, where players were invited to play with tabletop musical instruments, paints, tapes and highlighters – while answering broad questions around speculative futures, markets, place and self.

Having the opportunity to play while speculating on relationships with Prahran market, markets in general, and the way humans shop and interact, drew some heart-felt and extensive responses from play participants. Engaging imagination and play, it seems, offered people the permission to engage with personal reflections – while also weighing up very practical considerations in the present and the future.

Interview Questions asked participants: how they ended up attending the Sinner’s Roast; what they felt about a market in general, and Prahran Market in particular; and how People, Money and Food might interact in a speculative future of 2050. While participants answered these questions directly, they freely engaged with concepts of play, speculation around the future, and their feelings about place and Prahran Market. These question responses, and broader/open themed responses, are outlined in direct quotes below.

What brought you both to the market tonight and what’s your connection to this place?

• We are, I don’t really get to do a lot with his family because I’m always at work. So it’s just the one time that I could come to one of these things and they’re always so much fun. I love markets for that reason, yeah.
• We live just up the street. Very close, very convenient. We heard the music. Yeah, it was hard to ignore. Came towards the music.
• Well actually I saw it on Facebook, but we are locals, well semi-locals here, so we shop here on the weekends. So I saw it and I thought, what a different way to utilise the market.

And what does the concept of a market mean to you?

• One thing I really love about markets, like every time I come to whichever market it is, and say in the case of Prahran Market, literally every time I come here, I remember… the other times I’ve come here. Like I remember coming here when I first got to Melbourne. I’m not from Melbourne but I’ve been here 40 years now and I remember the first time I came to Prahran Market in 1985. Wow 40 years!. Yeah and it’s got a lot of special meaning.
• I think I think community connection and also cultural, cultural connection. You see a lot of, you know, international based markets and. I think pretty much every every person here has come from a different walk of life. So I think it’s important to, you know, I suppose, just knowing ourselves where we come from. I think it’s important to view all of it, but yeah, because that’s probably one of the reasons that’s probably the main reason I go to markets and doing this kind of stuff.

We’re imagining that the shapes on the table we’re playing with represent people, money and food. So we’ve got three resources. Imagining that it’s 2050 –  How do you see these three resources working?

• I think markets are where people come together because you’re in your house. You’ve got everything, you’ve got the technology, and you’re going to need humanity and human connections… I think markets are going to become very, very important.. And they’re really going to provide… I think they’re going to have to provide space for people.. for humans to be human. And I think markets are going to enable spaces for creativity for human emotion, for innovation, and for people to connect in a human way. I think markets are going to be essential.
• I feel money is going to increase and connection will somehow increase, because we’re only getting more as the years go by. But food will obviously the same, which is why in relation to the markets, food is big, because we’ll have our money, we’ll have our people and connection to stuff, but food is big to make, because of what I just said.

Themes Around Play

• First of all, you’re obviously living it (play) and it’s live. You can basically touch it. (Our son) does game and that’s that’s cool Yeah, and  I’m totally happy for that to happen but he also knows that there’s a side of our lives where he needs to come out and he needs to experience and involve himself with other people and, People of all different demographics, you know, I think he gets a lot, a lot out of that. And you wouldn’t experience that if you’re just sitting at home on your sofa.

• I mean, just imagine, like two minutes back, he (son) was just literally saying, “I don’t want to be here, I want to go home.” What would he do? Go home, watch something. But now he’s sitting and interacting with the things which are around, not whinging at all. That makes a difference. If your community has availability of doing something outside and anyone can come, there is no, like, need to pay something. And he can come and just spend time and, you know, he can come out. Do spend time. Else people just go home and get busy with electronics and that’s it. Less talking among each other

Immersion and Interaction as an Experience with Play

• So, I’m definitely one that would be like, no, someone’s trying (to play) here, so let’s try and get involved and even if we don’t like it we don’t have to stay at it let’s just experience it and then move on and look sometimes those little memories the kids learn from that or go oh do you remember that time when and it might not be something major could be something quite, minimal but that remains as a memory in their mind so I think that’s really interesting.
• Oh look, it’s great, we’re totally different, old people, we’re on and we’re just chatting to a lady outside who’s a little old to go to, get through, got the instructions, we haven’t met her before, but yeah, great meeting people, just have that interaction with other people.

The Seven Sins Festival – Sat 14 and Sun 15 June, 2025

by Aramiha Harwood & Carlo Tolentino

The Sin Series at Prahran Market was an autumn/winter festival event that took place over 8 weekends during May and June 2025. Each weekend featured different activities, music and entertainment, as well as associated delicious foods, related to the various themes of Sin. Sloth, for example, offered gentle acoustic music, mulled wine, and cosy romcoms on big TV screens. Gluttony presented a sausage-eating competition, while Pride was celebrated with Drag Queen Bingo. The entire festival would culminate in a weekend of night-time food, music and activities at the Sinner’s Roast.

The idea for play busking came from creative director Carlo Tolentino at a future play lab planning meeting. Team members were contemplating the slow movement associated with obtaining permits and planning permissions for pop-up events and parklet activities – including at Festivals. Carlo suggested that perhaps play activation artists could operate as buskers on the street, with a little mobile set of equipment they could take from place to place, to run 2-3 simple games/play-activities for passing foot traffic. The only permissions required would be getting a busking permit from local councils.

The future play lab were approached by City of Stonnington to see if we would be interested in play-related activations at the Prahran Market during the Sin Series festival. Two weekends were provided as possible dates to get involved. The first weekend would encompass the hustle and bustle of the day-time market, celebrating the sin of Pride (also coinciding with the Pride Festival). The second weekend would be during the Sinner’s Roast of the final weekend – to be held at night-time.

For the sin of Pride weekend, it was thought that the play busking model could be one that would work in this context. It would be during the day and in a market – local foot traffic would be used to interaction with busking artists in a market setting. The possibilities of play busking could also be explored in Prahran Market, with a variety of places and spaces afforded to the play lab team/s to try out and experiment with.

Two Playful Spaces Officers (PSO’s), Vaishali and Lester, operated throughout the Prahran Market for two days with a single suitcase of play activation equipment and games. Not only did they operate as facilitators of the games, they could also bring their expertise in game design and facilitation to changing the rules and conditions of the game/s – depending on where they were, at the time, and who they were with.

Both PSO’s felt that each play space—whether urban parks, indoor venues, or public streets—presented unique challenges. These included accommodating different group sizes, energy levels, and the diverse personalities and interests of potential participants, requiring tailored ways of inviting people to play.

Moving from place to place as a play-busker demanded careful consideration of how people could interact with new spaces and how best to engage them. Vaishali and Lester argued that play-busking games must be inclusively simple to foster spontaneous, meaningful interactions across different age groups, as people would often join after observation of the game/s first.

For the Saturday event, both elders and young adults were present at the market to do their shopping, while Sunday saw more family-oriented participation with partners and toddlers. Game explanations and demonstrations were targeted to different age groups. It was noted that on one occasion, specifically on Sunday, two games were run simultaneously to accommodate toddlers’ individual interests. The games played included Lemon Joust, Square of Sounds, Fox and Squirrel, and Zen Counting. For ‘Square of Sounds,’ instruments were incorporated into the play, and participants learned to play music by pointing out icons.

Audience Engagement and Invitation to Play

Lester and Vasishali mentioned initial difficulties in engaging market-goers, as people were primarily focused on grocery shopping. Initial attempts to invite people by shouting about games led to confusion and onlookers questioning the event. The strategy was then changed to inviting people to play ‘free games,’ which resulted in more positive interactions, including smiles and inquiries. The wider demographic of participants demonstrated that urban pop-up play could appeal to a diverse range of ages, suggesting potential for broader community engagement. The PSO’s were also able to engage people through conversations around the future play lab itself and the concept of urban play.

Venue and Setup Considerations

On the first day, at the first location (an entrance into the food hall section of the market), the team struggled to invite people to participate. Market security referred to this location as a ‘bad’ area. This highlighted the advantage of a busking-style setup, allowing the PSO’s to pick up and move to locations with more crowds. Considerations for location selection included ensuring the safety of participants, avoiding disturbance to other shops and/or businesses, and being mindful of existing amenities like dog water bowls and tables. Issues such as cold conditions in the food hall were also noted. At the end of the first day, an outer space was tried, but most people had finished their shopping so it was a quiet area.

—

Overall it was felt that this first go at play-busking was a success. By moving around to different locations within the Prahran Market, and adjusting the games to the audience/s at any given place and/or time, there were some very useful and meaningful interactions with the diverse groups who frequent the market on the weekend. There will definitely be further adjustments and tweaking for future events. This may include introducing different or additional games on different days to offer variety, varying game difficulty levels to suit participants’ ability levels, and continuing to move play locations to encourage maximum engagement. The experience and capability of the PSO’s – as facilitators and game-designers – cannot be overestimated in its importance for play-busking in particular.

Of course there was not too much time for those of us at future play lab to reflect on play-busking as a method. We needed to get ready for the following weekend of play activities at the night-time festival Sinner’s Roast!

Urban Play activations in the Darkness… what Fun! More details coming soon…

A Chance to Test Pop-Up Urban Play

by Aramiha Harwood, Troy Innocent, Carlo Tolentino & Lucy Buxton

On Sunday 6 April, future play lab participated in the Satay and Reog Festival at Prahran Square in Naarm Melbourne. Run by the Indonesian Diaspora Network Victoria, the festival offers a range of cultural performances, food stalls, and fun activities for attendees – with a focus on Indonesian culture, food, and street games. The event fosters community involvement and is attended by many families and children. Activities include traditional dance, fashion shows, parades, music, and various Indonesian food stalls – including satay, of course!

The future play lab were invited by the City of Stonnington to activate some of the space at the Festival through play and games as part of LP220100066 Play about Place. The opportunity to participate meant that the future play lab would have limits on space and time in which to operate, presenting a chance to test the urban play pop-up’s modularity. The team assembled included a Creative Director (Troy), Creative Producer (Carlo), and three Playful Spaces Officers (PSOs).

Carlo devised a ‘medium size’ version of the future play lab’s pop-up play activations based on Troy’s curation and design for St Kilda Festival during brat summer earlier in the year. This medium size pop-up focuses on mobile and agile elements of games and play.  This medium version was designed to have games and play equipment that are easily transportable, could be set up relatively quickly, and could be packed up just as fast.  Lemon Joust and Sound Square were included in this medium size activation. In addition, an Indonesian student at RMIT helped to implement two other Indonesian games in particular:

One, Two, Three – Wooden Man: a variation of the game Red Light, Green Light, or Statues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statues_(game)

Semut, Orang, Gajah: a variation of the Rock, Paper, Scissors hand game https://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=5079

Testing of this medium version of the urban play pop-up occurred at the festival, focusing on things such as mobility, modularity, and the use of astroturf shapes to create inherently playful spaces.

On the day, Troy explored different activation sites, observing these for 15-20 minutes, then directing relocation of the activation. The initial location was not ideal due to security concerns and was not encouraging for children and families. Over the day, the Play Activation was moved three times. Each location was used for different durations: the first for 40 minutes, the second for about 1 hour, and the third for nearly 2 hours. Lemon Joust was the most played game on the day. The Indonesian games were well-received by attendees familiar with them, inviting them to play.

Of the three locations, each offered a different context:

• site one: chosen by the event organisers for line of sight with the main stage and audience area
• site two: selected by creative director to be more enclosed and secure, and to intersect with foot traffic from nearby Greville St
• site three: selected by creative director after grabbing a satay snack and observing the busiest area for foot traffic adjacent to food trucks and connecting to nearby Prahran Market. This location also included seating and a set of rock steps ideal for musical instruments and equipment.

There were some difficulties on the day. Sometimes the bands that performed at the festival were very loud, which meant that the Play activation music and discussions involved in engaging play-participants were difficult to hear. The outdoor scope of the Festival meant that the play activations were exposed to heavy wind on the day, and rain meant that the event packed up an hour earlier than expected. It was also felt by some of the Play organisers that the Square itself was not an inviting space – the concrete boundaries of Prahran Square closed off passing foot-traffic who may have been interested in what was going on.

General observations from Play organisers and facilitators noted the overall success of the Play activation at the Satay and Reog festival. Overall Click-counter numbers for the day had 275 people who engaged and/or participated in future play lab activities. Children, parents, and even band members – who were performing on the day – participated in games. When it came time to move the Play to another location at the festival, some parents and children actively helped move equipment between locations – indicating a strong desire to continue playing. Perhaps this relocation activity could be turned into a game itself? Something to think about further…

Familiar Indonesian games significantly encouraged engagement from the Indonesian community, as many attendees recognized them from their childhood.

In terms of mobility of the Play activation, and moving to new locations, it was noted that sight lines are very important for visibility and engagement. The second location had poor sight lines as it was behind a tent and a stage – so it was harder to get an audience to come and play. It is thought that visual cues and open spaces can be important for inviting play, creating a welcoming atmosphere.

Reflecting on the roles of the Playful Spaces Officers (PSOs), it was suggested that providing a  clear division of responsibilities could help in engaging more members of the public as potentil play-participants. For example, one PSO could be actively inviting people to play (“hooking them in”) while another could be running the game itself. This could be really useful for PSOs, as it can be hard to maintain attention on one thing, while trying to do another.

It was noted that adults were mostly observers, with some participating alongside their children. This identifies the need to better invite adults to play themselves, not just watch their kids. Opportunities exist to leverage instruments or other engagement tools to encourage active adult participation.

Overall, the Satay and Reog Festival 2025 was an opportunity to try out a medium sized Play activation on site. future play lab organisers have been sufficiently encouraged by this agile and mobile approach to play activations to try this at future events – perhaps making the activations even more ‘pop-up’ in style and approach. Both future play lab organisers and PSO’s were also afforded the opportunity to practice and hone their skills and craft as Play activators – using the opportunity to reflect and build on their knowledge and experience for the future. The future play lab would like to thank the Indonesian Diaspora Network Victoria and the City of Stonnington for this opportunity to be a part of the 2025 Satay and Reog Festival.

Terima kasih!

A Day of Play in Future Libraries

by Aramiha Harwood

In late 2024, on the first day of the Melbourne International Games Week festival, Future Play Lab joined with narrm ngarrgu Library to put on a day of Play in the Library.

https://futureplaylab.io/projects/future-play-library

narrm ngarggu is a new City of Melbourne Library and Family Services Centre which opened in late 2023. narrm ngarrgu (pronounced nahm nar-GUW) means ‘Melbourne Knowledge’ in Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung language.

Located in the Queen Vic Market precinct of CBD Melbourne, this new library caters to a broad range of clients – young people, families, domestic and international students, tourists and commuters. Not just a library space, narrm ngarrgu is an urban oasis, designed so everyone in our diverse community can explore their interests, learn something new and access integrated family support.

We were interested in the role of libraries as essential social infrastructure connected to place and the role of play in bringing people together to energise and interconnect existing communities, and provide the creative spark for new ones. The opening event included representatives from Bayside and Manningham Council, sparking off conversations on this theme at the start of the day.

With this in mind, narrm ngarrgu brought together the gaming community in Melbourne to explore the potential of play and gaming to connect, explore the future and to share knowledge with each other. Librarians and gamers, designers and playmakers, researchers and enthusiasts, families and communities, were invited to sample and engage with some possibilities for the future of play – and to imagine the library, as a third place, supporting this.

During the day, there were many opportunities to experience different types of play – organised and freeform – throughout the library. Participants were free to diversify their experiences, by moving from place to place, from play to play. There were web-based games available on the public computers, supplied by game design students at RMIT – via Games Kitchen. https://rmitlink.rmit.edu.au/Clubs/Games-Kitchen

LEGO and jigsaw puzzles were left for younger library attendees to use in the multifunction room on level 3, while Boardgames were placed on multifunction tables in the Event space on level 1 for anyone to come and play with.

There were several games in particular which were memorable for their engagement and fun.

The Werewolf social game, a perennial favourite for many gamers, was discovered by a group of librarians. Asked to roleplay themselves as villagers (with a couple of insurgent Werewolves), the group worked together through the complex social dynamics and moral dilemmas of ‘the village’ – while trying to solve the mystery of ‘Who are the Werewolves killing our Villagers?’. The game itself is free, an example of it is available here: https://pegasusshop.de/media/pdf/51/d5/38/4250231716614_gb.pdf

The Adaptation Game asked players to consider their place in climate change and our future communities. Roleplaying themselves or an imagined identity into the near future, players faced  a growing number of climate events and aasociated social and economic ramifications (eg my player had to try and travel across the CBD of Melb when all public transport infrastructure had collapsed in an unprecedented heatwave). One of the particular elements of interest for me was the fact that the game could be tailored to specific councils and local government areas. That is, the spaces, stories and events in-game were specific to particular locations and places eg CBD Melbourne (City of Melbourne), or the Dandenong mountains (Yarra Ranges council).

https://amble.studio/

Games Kitchen RMIT and Swinburne Gamemakers also ran a Game development session during the afternoon.  So many young people came along to enjoy playtesting games and chatting about how to make some of them. This was the biggest success, from the huge number of games, attendees and diversity of imaginative/fun approaches to console and pc gaming design and animation. My Kudos and Congrats to the students from both Universities.

In the evening there were two panels held in the event space. In the first, gamemakers discussed elements of play and gaming in their relative spheres. Letoya from the Indigenous gaming collective GUCK, Leon from Melbourne Megagames, Jason from Amble Studios, and myself, discussed: the state of play in Melbourne in 2024; how the industry is looking for independent game developers; what it is that draws us to gaming, play and gamemaking; and where we think things will be going in the future.

There was some argument over what gaming represents, as an artistic pursuit or as playful distraction – and what this means for the industry and/or sector. It was argued that play can be a useful tool for learning and engagement, through the permission to imagine and to have fun that it entails.

GUCK: https://www.tsumea.com/developer-service/guck

Melbourne Megagames: https://www.melbournemegagames.com/

Jasan Tampake/Amble Studio: https://amble.studio/meet-the-troupe/

Finally, researchers involved with future play lab – Dale Leorke and Danielle Wyatt – joined Lucas Yi to discuss the role of Libraries as the ‘third place’ that could be a supporting hub for play and gaming in most communities and Melbourne in particular. Dale and Danielle discussed their book, The Library as Playground, comparing the approaches to play in libraries around the world, and the spectrum of formal and informal play spaces within these libraries. Lucas provided some perspective on the practicalities of running gaming programs in Melbourne’s libraries, given his own experiences having done so at several suburban libraries. It was agreed that play can be seen in a variety of forms and modes in libraries, and that it can be a useful means of connecting with patrons – many of whom may need the ‘permission/s’ of play to engage with their library and community further.

Overall the day was considered a success. There is talk of planning for another Future Play Library day for 2025, with hopefully further funding from invested bodies.

For me I thought it was encouraging that there were so many diverse groups there on the day – gamers, young and old, librarians, and academics. I did find it disappointing that there was a lack of engagement with each other on a personal level, suggesting the need for more social games – something that was left out of the program due to time and resources. The games, in their respective spaces and respective ludic element, remained separated from one another. The greatest disappointment to me was that, besides the library attendees who were open to trying out most of what was on offer on the day, the gamers and playmakers didn’t do likewise. One of the major reasons for making the Future Play Library day happen was for those of us non-industry playmakers and gamemakers to start engaging with one another and supporting each other. A community of practice. As someone who  designs, playtests and publishes, I recognise the importance of the community to make all of these things happen! This didn’t really happen, as I observed many of the makers and players focus on their own play activities and not really go outside of that. This was represented in the invitation to have a post-event beer, at the brewery next to narrm ngarrgu, given to all attendees and volunteers in the program, but a more structured social event embedded in the day would be more successful as many people had other MIGW commitments to attend.

I’d suggest that this may be something to look at for the future Future Play Library – a greater focus on bringing people together to share knowledge and their love of play/gaming, as a means of making it sustainable and fun.

As my father always said when beginning meetings in Maori:

He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata he tangata.

What is the most important thing? It is people, it is people, it is people.

ka kite anō!
seeya later!