15 Apr 2017

An Octopus Playground in Shenzhen

Can I dial you all into a little secret? When I was younger, I used to actually want to design playgrounds for a living. In no way, shape, or form did my education ever take me on that path, but I still remember watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a kid and the scene when the group heads into the factory to find that everything is edible was like my dream. Personally, I wished that would’ve happened to me, but on the other hand, I always wondered how cool it would be to create something like that or bring something similar to that to life. Again, I know it’s a chocolate factory and not a playground… but you know where I’m headed with this right? Another example is in that episode of Arthur when Francine takes everyone to her dad’s workplace – the garbage dump – and there’s an amazing playground at the end of the episode!

Okay we just had a moment where I “nerded” out on this. To the point of the story now – a giant octopus playground has emerged in Shenzhen and look how glorious it is! These kids are so lucky. The most friendly octopus you have ever seen was designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman and UAP. Does this seem familiar to you at all? Hofman was also the designer behind the enormous bunny in Taiwan!

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