2026 Core Forum

What happens when a public library stops asking “how do we fit play in?” and starts asking “how do we build for it?” At one library branch, that shift in thinking led to the creation of a dedicated active play space: a fully immersive, themed environment designed to support the kind of boisterous, physical, whole-body play that research shows is essential to early childhood development but increasingly rare in children’s daily lives.
This session presents that project as a three-perspective case study. A library administrator, an architect, and an interactives designer each take the audience through their piece of the process: from the leadership decision to invest in active play, through the design and procurement challenges of building for movement in a public space, to the fabrication of an environment that is simultaneously imaginative, durable, accessible, and safe.
Attendees will leave with a grounded understanding of what it actually takes to plan, fund, design, and operate an active play space, including honest reflection on what worked, what didn’t, and how libraries of varying sizes and budgets can start incorporating active play without a full installation.