PlayUp Lisbon // give space to play

Children are the soul of communities and the future of our society. Access to inclusive play environments and quality play opportunities are key to children’s personal development.

Children who play better will be able to make better choices and have better ideas to shape the world we live in.

Play is a human right & universal language

Some children have no space to play

The original idea for PlayUp was to deliver low-cost educational and biodegradable toys for children across the world in response to humanitarian emergencies such as tsunami, war, earthquakes, hurricanes or extreme poverty.

“The healthy development of children is crucial to the future wellbeing of any society.” UNICEF

But we had to start somewhere, so we decided to focus on some of the poorest neighborhoods of Lisbon.

Exploring areas where social exclusion, poor household conditions and neglect are the daily reality for hundreds of young children.

Some of these children live in Lisbon

Bairro da Horta Nova

Casal da Boba

Bairro 6 de Maio

Casal da Mira

During the past twelve months we have been collaborating with the Associação João de Deus, a leading Portuguese organisation for children development.

We delivered a series of interactive co-design workshops within four different communities in the North East of Lisbon.

Currently operating in 4 quarters

Creating more quality play opportunities at community level, working with children and their families.

Developing activities that can be adopted and replicated in similar contexts, supporting the organisations already operating in the educational sector.

PlayUp creates space to play

PlayUp generates toys to grow up

The project strategic aim is to co-develop a small series of clever educational toys made of a new biodegradable material that can be locally produced, sold and easily distributed on a large scale.

From social intervention to social enterprise.

design & innovation

entrepreneurship& sustainability

community& education

+ +SOCIAL CREATIVE STRATEGIC

Synergy of factors: design process

Project development stages:

Scoping and Research12 months building project team, identify resources and connecting to local communities (self funded).

Social Intervention6 months delivering playful sessions to communities working with children their families and experts in the field of education (funded).

Design development 6 months developing, producing and distributing PlayUp toys (enterprise).

SCOPE DEVELOP DELIVER

2011 / 2012 2012 / 2013 2013 / 2014

research and team building

product development

communityinterventions

35Kpitch

100Kinvestment

Project development stages:

PlayUp stakeholders and possible funders

• Pressley Ridge, Social Innovation Hub Amadora• Camara Municipalde Amadora, Lisbon • Associação João de Deus, Ludotecas moveis• IADE Design University (engage students)• Majora, main Portuguese toy producer, Porto• PimPumPlay, online educational toy store• Södra Labs, material innovation centre, Sweden• João Sem Medo, centre for entrepreneurship• TESE, association for development

• Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (potential funder)• Fundação Montepio (potential funder)• Fundação EDP (potential funder)

We have presented the results of this early interventions to a series of stakeholders and potential funders who will help us raising the grant funding necessary for the further development and implementation of the second phase of the PlayUp project.

Key project partners

Introducing Durapulp from Södra Labs

We are experimenting a new biodegradable and innovative material for the design of the PlayUp toys. Durapulp is a composite of paper pulp and a corn starch biopolymer.

PlayUp will connect a Swedish research Lab with local Portuguese industry and universities.

Vincenzo Di Maria (29)Matteo Tangi (25)Joana Regojo (25)Rita Duarte (28)

4 entrepreneurial young designers and innovators:

Vincenzo and Matteo are Italian and share the same passion for socially responsive design and sustainable development.

Joana and Rita are both Portuguese, have studied abroad and have a background in design and sustainable tourism.

The PlayUp design team

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Commonground is where design meets positive social change. We bring people together to deliver socially responsive design & innovation projects.

PlayUp Lisbon is a commonground project

We have a proven track record in delivering service innovation and tackling complex social challenges. We have been using Theory of Change and SROI tools in the past to track our progress and make sure we deliver measurable social impact.

vincenzo@gotocommonground.com www.gotocommonground.com@cmngrd