Here’s one for the calendar – The Playground Project has landed in Melbourne, and it’s a real showstopper.
Already a blockbuster in Europe, the UK and the US, this much-loved playground exhibition has landed at Incinerator Gallery in Moonee Ponds for its first-ever Australian outing. It’s hands-on, totally unique, and built for families.
Explore The Playground Project Incinerator Gallery
So what exactly is it? The Playground Project Melbourne invites the local community to experience play and art in a new, interactive way—creating spaces for children, families and people of all ages to engage creatively.
A Playground… Inside an Art Gallery?
Yes, you read that right. This exhibition is flipping the idea of a gallery on its head.
Several large-scale installations—some inside, some outside—have transformed the Incinerator Gallery into an imaginative, climbable, exploratory playground.
It’s not just permitted to touch the art, it’s encouraged. Slide down it. Crawl through it. See the world through the eyes of a designer, an artist… or a five-year-old.
The Playground Project explores the history of playgrounds from the 1930s to the 1990s, spotlighting how these spaces have acted as open-air laboratories for creativity, learning and community building. Think photographs, videos, archival materials and key case studies from across the globe—Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Australia—all gathered in one place.
But this isn’t just a history lesson. It’s an invitation to play, with three fully interactive playground installations designed for real-time movement and discovery.
From Monkey Bars to Master Planning
The exhibition asks some big questions: How do we design spaces that invite joy, risk, collaboration and learning? And what can today’s cities learn from the way we used to play?
This Melbourne edition of the exhibition has been shaped by international and local experts.
Guest curator Gabriela Burkhalter, a Swiss urban planner and political scientist, teamed up with Daniel Baumann of Kunsthalle Zürich—where the project was first commissioned—to bring a fresh perspective to the Aussie experience.
Locally, the Playground Project is brought to life by BoardGrove Architects, a Melbourne-based studio known for their thoughtful and playful approach to public design. The result? A beautifully crafted blend of history, interaction and contemporary creativity.
Enter the Lozziwurm
One of the stars of the show is the Lozziwurm Playground—a tubular, worm-like climbing structure originally created by Swiss artist Yvan Pestalozzi in 1972. It’s colourful, twisty, and just the right amount of weird.
Children can explore its winding tunnels and slides, all while engaging with an iconic piece of playground history.
And here’s the best bit: this isn’t just a temporary thrill. In a major win for local families, the Lozziwurm will stay in Moonee Valley permanently after the exhibition closes, becoming a new feature of the area’s public play spaces.
Celebrating Culture, Community and Connection
In keeping with the spirit of inclusive design and cultural storytelling, Moonee Valley City Council is also commissioning a brand-new First Nations Playable Public Art piece. This work will find a permanent home in the local area, leaving a lasting legacy long after the exhibition wraps up.
It’s a meaningful addition to a project that’s all about how we connect—with place, with each other, and with the sheer joy of play.
Don’t miss out
This international blockbuster exhibition opened in June and runs through to October 2025.
Adult tickets are $10 and children under 12 are free!
Whether you’re raising little ones, designing big ideas, or just keen to remember what it feels like to hang from the monkey bars, The Playground Project is an invitation to move, laugh, explore—and rediscover play in all its forms.
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