Dezeen Magazine

Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living

Pastel colours and polka-dots cover a fantastical miniature city for children in Shenzhen

Architecture studio X+ Living has built a polka-dot slide into a ball pit and giant pastel parasols within the Shenzhen Neobio Family Park in a shopping centre in China.

Shenzhen Neobio Family Park is the latest in the Neobio series of immersive parent and child restaurants with playgrounds that X+ Living has been building in China.

Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living

Parents can eat at the restaurant while their children explore the colourful and zany play area.

Shenzhen Neobio Family Park occupies the atrium of the shopping centre, creating what X+ Living described as a "dream city" for children.

Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living

A bright yellow corridor with parasols suspended over an archway marks the entrance.

Inside, an atrium is decorated in sweet-shop hues with a black and white striped floor and a tactile reception desk in shiny red, pink and white bands.

Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living

The miniature city itself has children-sized play shops, a pizza parlour, dressing-up zone and a dentist's surgery.

Each one sits in a colourful, bubble-like structures with rounded edges either side of a carpeted road.

Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living

There are toy cars for children to move between areas, with parking spaces marked outside the play shops.

Small shopping trolleys are available for them to use once inside and there is miniature furniture to sit on.

Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living

Second levels to the toy town are connected by staircases and rounded transparent corridors.

Giant colourful umbrellas and parasols with frilled edges are suspended from the ceiling above the miniature city.

Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living

A spiral covered slide covered in black polkadots on a white background curves down from an upper level, depositing the rider in a ball pit at the bottom.

Curving padded areas create a safe and cute-looking bumper zone around any hard surfaces.

Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living

The whole of Shenzhen Neobio Family Park has a colour scheme of pastels and chalky pinks, reds, blues and green.

Rounded porthole-style windows in all of the miniature shops give plenty of places for children to peep out of.

Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living

X+ Living was founded in 2011 by Li Xiang and has headquarters in Shanghai.

Other playful designs for children in China include a cafe with a carousel by Wutopia Lab in Dalian, and a school in Chengdu with a slide and ball pit by Karv One Design.

Photography is by Shao Feng.


Project credits:

Interior design: X+ living
Chief designer: Li Xiang
Design team: Ren Lijiao, Wu Feng, Luo Ziyan, Chen Lufang, Zhang Xin, Zhang Xiaosong, Jiang Xueping, Fan Haifeng

More images

Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living
Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living
Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living
Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living
Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living
Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living
Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living
Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living
Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living
Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living
Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living
Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living
Shenzhen Neobio Family Park by X+ Living