Child’s play
01 December 2014
The Brand Creative team stepped into a child’s mind to design the Caboodle play centre
TO ENSURE that children of all ages and interests are kept engaged for hours at Caboodle, Dubai-based designer Carla Conte along with her team at Brand Creative stepped into a child’s mind while creating concepts for the recently opened play centre.
Caboodle, which is located at City Walk in Dubai, UAE, has some rich and original features that will have any child playing contentedly for hours. Innovative creations include an inverted cone slide and the interactive trampoline where lights come on when you stand on the flowers. No detail has been ignored – right down to the honeycomb shoe rack and the bench below that appears to be oozing honey.
Besides its interactive and entertaining play area, the outlet features a salon and a cafe.
Concept
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Caboodle is designed to keep kids engaged and happy. |
Commenting on the main features of Caboodle, Conte, the creative director at Brand Creative, says: “Caboodle has taken fun and games for little ones to a new level. Some of the features include wall climbing, slides, chalk drawing boards, mini recessed nooks, and the latest in touch-screen games. Infants and toddlers have a play area full of original soft toys to amuse and delight.”
With colourful interiors that are truly inviting, Caboodle features a spacious play area equipped with slides, games and cutting-edge technology, all certified safe for children to explore. It also has a refreshments bar and a retail area where only organic and all-natural products are offered
She continues: “Since Caboodle is the brainchild of the same family behind Sisters Beauty Lounge and Candella, they know a thing or two about lively families and the pampering needs of mothers in Dubai. Recognising that time is precious in this fast-paced city, Caboodle’s managing director Hind Abdulrazak came up with the idea to help harried moms have their essential beauty grooming sessions, catch up on news with friends and keep an eye on their children at play, all in one place. After all, multi-tasking is what women do best.”
Conte and her team at Brand Creative were called in to create an entirely new environment that allows mothers to relax and keep the kids engaged and happy for an hour or two.
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The play centre is bright and spacious. |
Elaborating on the concept for the project, Conte says: “We wanted to create a sophisticated and stylish location in which adults can relax, but at the same time give children the impression that they are entering a fantasy land where they imagine their own adventures. The reception is an inverted doll’s house with illuminated windows, giving a sense of what Alice must have felt as she slid into Wonderland.”
“It’s a contemporary feel, as stylish as the owner – a design classic: clean lines and a white background with pops of green, pink, orange and blue to introduce a note of whimsy and highlight accents.”
Magical cloud features are suspended from the ceiling, above custom-made and moulded slides – one of which is in the shape of an inverted cone where kids climb up like a tree house and then slide down on the outside.
Making full use of the latest LED (light-emitting diode) interactive technology, motion sensors are positioned under and around an interactive trampoline. Flowers appear on the trampoline, which when touched, pop in an explosion of light and colour that are designed to raise delightful cries of wonder.
The café area is furnished with original Eames and Bongo seating.
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The colourful interiors at Caboodle. |
Caboodle Pamper and Play is a family destination which allows busy parents to enjoy all the facilities they would expect from a quality salon/spa, their favourite café and a fun play area for their children, all under one roof.
Caboodle enables parents and their children to spend quality time with one another, to bond, interact, play, learn and have fun together in a safe and stimulating environment, where children can interact with others and develop their social skills.
The play areas at Caboodle are specifically designed to encourage traditional forms of play where children get to use their imagination.
The designer
Brand Creative was established in 2011 by Conte and Mohammed El Hijazi and has a core team of talented and knowledgeable artists with backgrounds in strategy, architecture, civil engineering, interior design, and graphic design. The company specialises in the retail, hospitality and entertainment sectors in the UAE, the GCC and internationally, providing unique, creative solutions that increase brand awareness and sales.
Brand Creative’s impressive portfolio of clients includes Burj Al Arab, Four Points Sheraton, Sisters Beauty Lounge, Al Khayyat Investments and Al Hokair Group.
