Designing with children at the centre
At the International School of Billund, prototypes and playful experiments quickly find their way into children’s hands. What began as design ideas at the drawing board are tested, explored and sometimes completely transformed as children start to play with them. For the students, the visit becomes an opportunity to see how their designs come to life through play – and how children adapt, reshape and sometimes entirely reinvent them. That is precisely the point.
This scene unfolds within the course Child-Centred Design for Play, where students from Kolding School of Design and Universidad de los Andes in Colombia collaborate with children to explore what happens when children’s perspectives are given space in the design process. For privacy reasons, we cannot show images from the workshop, but the process is easy to imagine: materials, ideas and play in constant motion.
The course was developed at Kolding School of Design as part of the MA programme Design for Play – the world’s first master’s programme dedicated to design and play. Established in 2017 in collaboration with the LEGO Foundation and the LEGO Group, the programme has in recent years developed close partnerships with institutions including Universidad de los Andes in Colombia.
During the course, students from the two institutions come together to explore how design can take its starting point in children’s own experiences, perspectives and ways of playing.
For Karen Feder, Head of the MA programme Design for Play at Kolding School of Design, it is essential that students do not design solely based on their own assumptions.
- When design students allow themselves to become part of children’s everyday lives, they gain a much deeper understanding of the context and realities children are part of – and are therefore better equipped to design for them, she explains.
In their encounters with children, students quickly discover that many adult assumptions about childhood and play do not necessarily hold true.
- In context, they are confronted with their own assumptions about children, childhood and play. Instead, they experience what childhood actually looks like today, what it means to be a child – and what makes sense to design for from a child’s perspective.
This insight often changes the direction of their design work.
- When you design with children rather than just for them, you often end up with solutions that create more relevant and meaningful play experiences.
The course brings together students from Denmark and Colombia – two different cultural and design traditions. Yet play quickly becomes common ground.
- Play becomes a shared language that can bridge cultural and disciplinary differences, says Solangy Trejos Sánchez, designer and lecturer at Universidad de los Andes.
She observes how students quickly begin to learn from each other’s perspectives.
- They discover different cultural interpretations of play and childhood and become aware that design traditions can vary. At the same time, communication often happens beyond spoken language – through prototypes, movement and experimentation.
According to her, these differences become a strength.
- Diversity becomes a creative advantage that can lead to richer and more inclusive design ideas.
One of the most surprising aspects for students is how much children can reshape a design process.
- One of the most surprising things is how radically children can reframe a situation, says Solangy Trejos Sánchez.
- Where adults often focus on constraints or practical considerations, children ask questions we overlook. They can also turn limitations into playful possibilities by suggesting ideas that may initially seem unrealistic, but which open up entirely new directions.
For students, this can be both challenging and inspiring.
- When you work with children, you never quite know what will happen. It can feel unpredictable and outside your comfort zone, but it is also incredibly rewarding and inspiring, says Karen Feder.
She also points out that children quickly show how they actually want to use a design.
- You never know in advance how children will use a design. But the more you include their perspectives in the process, the more you test along the way and discover how to create designs that allow space for children’s own initiatives and ways of using them. This expands the play value and makes the experience broader, richer and more inclusive.
If students take one thing away from the course, the educators hope it is a new way of thinking about design.
- The most important thing is empathy in design. Understanding that good design begins with listening deeply to the people you are designing with and taking different perspectives seriously, says Solangy Trejos Sánchez.
Karen Feder hopes the experience will have an impact far beyond the course itself.
- I hope the students become ambassadors for children and help advocate for children’s right to play.
She emphasises that this is not only about the kinds of play adults already recognise.
- It is about designing for children’s own play – not just the play adults promote, but the play that actually makes sense and matters in children’s everyday lives.
