The Werribee Tree House

The challenge was to create something visually memorable and playful in a shopping centre to attract new members of the community to this particular food court. All within commercial realities and restrictions that occur in such an environment, such as existing structure, roof, pillars and tenants.

Inspired by the neighbouring "Werribee" zoo, we wanted to go one step further than the animals. So, we designed and built a 3 story Tree House, designed to work around the current roofline, pillar and foodcourt. Our Tree House is to become a talking & meeting point for families. Creating a unique indoor Tree House allowed us to include varying degrees of play, from our stunning giant slinky to an incredible slide. By blending physical & digital play we are attracting families & children of all interests. Our interactive game The Wild Waterhole brings the "local" Savannah Zoo Animal into the Werribee foodcourt!

Ultimately the centre is the retail hub of multiple new and exisiting suburbs, this growing and changing community of Werribee requires a sense of belonging, the need to have a local centre that they are proud of, that reassures them they are in a community that understands their new and evolving needs as a "family" and "progressive" destination. A unique Play Space that alternate centres do not have, validates their choice of destination. In addition, tenancies in the area have increased and been secured based on the strategy to draw new families to the dining precinct.

Interactive Game graphics and the physical collide: Subtle details like the tree shapes in the physical format find themselves IN the interactive Game Graphics, connecting the physical environment to the digital. Play9 Games: In addition to the game pack: The Wild Waterhole, to keep the Play Space fresh, we have created a library of games, which appeal to varying age groups, skill-sets, solo vs group play and interests. Allowing the centre to change content based on different times of day, this also extends to changing the space to seasonal content such as “Christmas”. Platform: The playspace is all controllable and connected by our backend system called IM: This allows clients to change/schedule different games and also access a live user analytics, allowing Pacific Werribee to learn about their space and their audience – least popular/most popular time/day and so on.