Why public shared environments deserve better design
Children spend real time in places that were never designed around them: waiting rooms, libraries, museums, cafés, malls, clinics, the shared corners of a school. Design has started catching up at home: kids' rooms are increasingly built around how children actually behave, not just how a bedroom is supposed to look. Schools have always had to think about children, because children are the entire premise of a school.
It's everything in between, the shared public spaces that aren't home and aren't school, that gets left out. And it's not neutral. When a space has no real provision for how children move, explore or occupy it, children don't get invited into it. They get managed, minimized or kept out.
It's not just a design instinct, either. WHO, UNICEF and UN-Habitat increasingly frame child-friendly public space as something that shapes a child's health and development in its own right, not just an amenity attached to a playground or a school.
That gap is what Commons by Lila exists to close. Our position is simple: designing inclusive spaces for children by studying their behaviour, not by furnishing a checklist of equipment.
Children don't occupy space. They transform it.
Ask a child what a room is, and they won't describe walls and furniture. They'll show you a fort, a stage, a hiding place, a mountain, a shop. A single step becomes a stage. A bench becomes a train. A window becomes somewhere to watch the world from. Long before children can explain a space, they've already decided what it's for.
A thoughtfully designed environment doesn't tell children how to play. It creates the conditions for play to emerge on its own. Sometimes the smallest decision (a change in height, a quiet corner, an unexpected view) changes how a child experiences an entire place.
So the real opportunity isn't better playgrounds. It's more interesting environments: spaces where movement, imagination and discovery are built into the architecture itself, not confined to a single piece of equipment.
Designing around behaviour, not equipment
This is the question every Commons environment starts from, and it's a different question than most public spaces ask.
Instead of "which pieces of equipment should this space include?", we ask:
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Where might children naturally climb?
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Where can they quietly observe before joining in?
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How does one space support both energetic movement and moments of calm?
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How can different ages use the same environment differently?
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How does the space stay relevant as children grow?
This echoes decades of playwork research: the richest play environments are the ones that offer varied landscape and real choice, rather than directing every activity. The environment is an invitation, not an instruction. That's why our spaces favour simple forms, warm natural materials and open-ended experiences over fixed activities. The goal isn't to entertain a child for ten minutes, it's to keep revealing new possibilities over time.
Four ways children play in the same space
Because Commons by Lila is an offering rather than a single built project, our design team built a series of visualisations to show what these principles look like in practice. Within one environment, four different ways of playing coexist:
Exploration: movement, challenge and discovery. Changes in level, climbing opportunities and new vantage points build physical confidence.
Storytelling: turning open-ended settings into imaginary worlds: a shop, a home, a theatre, whatever the story needs that day.
Creation: learning by making. Modular work surfaces and accessible materials invite experimentation and hands-on learning.
Connection: play discovered through other people. Shared tables and collaborative activities help a child find their place within a group.
These aren't four separate zones. They're overlapping experiences within a single environment: the raised platform that supports exploration also becomes a stage for storytelling. The modular table that supports independent creation becomes a shared surface for connection twenty minutes later. Every element has a purpose. None of them dictates exactly how it gets used.
It's already happening beyond the playground
Some of the most interesting children's environments right now aren't playgrounds at all. The Free Library of Philadelphia redesigned several children's areas around play rather than furniture: climbing elements, reading nooks, observation points, flexible gathering areas, instead of just bookshelves and toys. The result wasn't only a more engaging children's section; it produced longer visits and richer, more collaborative play. It's proof that thoughtful play design doesn't need its own dedicated destination. It can live inside the everyday places children already spend time in.
What Commons by Lila offers
Commons by Lila brings our child-first design philosophy into shared environments beyond the home and the school: hospitals and clinics, libraries, museums, community spaces, cafés, malls, residential clubhouses,mixed-use developments and more. Every environment starts from the same framework (exploration, storytelling, creation, connection), then gets shaped by the specific people, place and purpose it's designed for. We're involved from the earliest concept through to the finished space, so childhood is considered from the start, not added on at the end.
If you're designing a shared space and want children to feel considered in it, write to us at info@lilaworld.in and we’ll help you shape it.
