Indoor playground design

Indoor playground design is the planning of a themed play space inside a building. Mast Parks plans indoor playgrounds as part of themed family entertainment centres and as spaces of their own.

Mast Parks offers indoor playground design as part of Master Planning, its design service. The master plan is the blueprint of the park: architectural drawings, crowd movement, ride and attraction selection, theming placement and revisions until the client approves it.

This page explains what indoor playground design involves, where Mast Parks has done this kind of work and what an owner should settle before starting. It stays at the level of what the work is for. The detailed method is part of Mast Parks' professional practice and is not published here.

See the park type hub: Themed FECs. Before design, a feasibility study decides which park or concept suits the site. After the master plan, Architectural Designing produces the construction-level drawings.

An indoor playground is planned for children first, and for the adults who bring them. The space is enclosed, so the layout, the activity mix and the safety of each area have to be settled before anything is built. Age groups matter: a space that suits toddlers does not suit older children, and the plan keeps them apart where needed.

Because the space is inside a building, the theme has to be packed into a small area, and the experience has to hold up on repeated visits. At FEC Raipur, the first themed indoor playground is built around the story of a crazy elephant and his partner in crime, a monkey.

Guest flow

The route through the playground decides where children play, where parents sit and where groups for birthdays gather. The master plan keeps routes clear, so that adults can see the children and children do not run across waiting areas.

Attractions

The activity mix is the heart of the plan: which play areas, for which ages, and how they relate to each other. It is chosen with the client to suit the audience the feasibility study identifies.

Theming

A single story across the whole space makes a small playground memorable. FEC Raipur includes the first themed indoor playground, built around the story of a crazy elephant and his partner in crime, a monkey.

Drawings and revisions

The master plan for an indoor playground is drawn as architectural drawings and sketches with exact measurements. The client reviews the plan, asks for changes and sees it revised until it is approved. Nothing moves to the construction-level drawings until the plan is approved.

FEC Raipur. A five-acre themed FEC that includes the first themed indoor playground. Mast Parks handled theming, ride planning, architectural drawings, financial planning (ROI), merchandising planning, content design and guest flow. See the project.

An owner brings the site, with its survey and any documents about its boundaries and access, together with the budget and the concept agreed in earlier stages. The owner also brings their views on the plan as it develops, since the revisions depend on them.

The owner receives the approved master plan for the indoor playground.

Indoor playground design is used by private landowners, existing park owners, family businesses, government and tourism bodies, and temples and religious trusts. Family businesses with a building or land near a city, and owners of existing centres who want to add a play space.

The master plan gives the owner a clear answer to these questions before any building starts:

• Which age groups the playground is for.
• The mix of play areas and how they sit together.
• Where adults wait, and what they can see.
• Where birthday and group spaces sit.
• How the theme appears in a small, enclosed space.

An indoor playground built without a plan can mix age groups in the same space, hide children from the adults who watch them and leave no room for groups. Without a theme it can look like many others. Planning the layout and the theme together avoids these outcomes.

Owners who ask about the design of an indoor playground often ask about its business. The design and the business are linked: the activity mix and the event spaces shape how the playground earns. Financial Planning tests the return on investment before the master plan is drawn, and the indoor playground business plan article explains the thinking.

Owners get more from this service when they arrive with answers, or at least with a view, on the points below. None of them needs to be settled in advance, and Mast Parks can help to settle them.

• How much land is available, and is it one piece?
• What has the feasibility work recommended for the indoor playground?
• What is the budget range for the first phase?
• Which attractions matter most to your audience?
• Which age groups should the playground serve first?
• Are there features on the site, such as trees, water or slopes, that you want to keep?

• Master plan. The blueprint of the park: where everything goes.
• Guest circulation. How guests move through the park.
• Zoning. Dividing the park into areas for different kinds of attraction, theme or audience.
• Indoor playground. A themed play space inside a building.
• Age zone. A part of the space set aside for one age group.

Mast Parks organises its work as 13 services in four stages, listed here in the order a project usually follows. Indoor playground design (Master Planning) is shown in bold. An owner can start at any stage, but each stage builds on the one before it.

• Concept and Planning. Feasibility Studies, Financial Planning, Concept Creation, Theme Development.
• Design and Execution. Master Planning, Architectural Designing, Project Management Consultancy.
• Rides, People and Operations. Ride and Attraction Planning, Team Hiring and Training, Operations Planning.
• Launch and Growth. Marketing and Branding, Merchandising, Content and Events.

Most owners use several of these services together, and some use the full set from idea to opening. See all 13 on the services page.

Mast Parks works with the owner at each step. The owner approves the work before it moves to the next stage, and revisions are part of the process. The owner knows the site, the region and the ambition. Mast Parks brings experience of designing and delivering parks across eight park types. For an indoor playground, the best results come when the two work as one team, with decisions made quickly and in the open.

To start a conversation, use the contact page. Mast Parks will ask about the site, the park you have in mind and where you are in the project.