The idea
Urban Foundry worked with the Quadrant Shopping Centre in Swansea to arrange some activities that would engage with families during the summer holiday. They particularly wanted a project that celebrated the environment in a creative and fun way.
The activity
Urban Foundry created an indoor living park in The Quadrant. The pop-up park transformed the middle of the shopping centre into a tranquil living green space with small exotic trees, plants and foliage. The park ran for two weeks with a busy timetable of activities designed to engage young people. ‘Art in the Park’ saw two artists working with children to create artwork based on the environment. ‘Stories in the Park’ brought a talking tree to the space that captivated the young audience with performative stories as well as handing out book tokens for a local retailer.
The results
The pop-up park introduced a green space to a high footfall shopping centre and inspired the young visitors to think about the environment and how urban spaces can be transformed into areas of tranquility and art. Over 700 children visited the pop-up park throughout the two weeks.
Lisa Hartley, Quadrant Shopping Centre Manager, said: “Our trees have brought great pleasure over the last two weeks creating a more diverse, imaginative and creative space for little visitors. It provided a positive play area for them to enjoy the various activities we had on offer and now Pop-up Park has finished they have been re-located to their natural environment.”
The project follows on from the indoor park Urban Foundry created with Natural Resources Wales at the Unit Nineteen project earlier in 2017, and the outdoor pop-up park delivered for Swansea Business Improvement District in 2016 in Swansea’s Oxford Street.
Urban Foundry worked with the Quadrant’s Communications agency BeWonder to deliver this initiative and all the plants were donated to charities and replanted following the project.
