Philosophy

We co-design to:

Shift power back to users

Liberate Play4All

Cultivate creativity

Co-create social value

Children and young people across the world need access to inclusive spaces where can play and thrive. To address the play emergency and provide more play4all, we believe children must have the power to design their own spaces, in a manner that celebrates their diversity and collective identity.y.

Dream Networks' founder, Marie Williams, on how we end the play emergency through co-design and local connections.

Co-Design

Marie Williams, CEO & founder of Dream Networks, chartered engineer, and PhD researcher, has revealed her views on the importance of co-design for business. Marie shares important points to encourage other designers to reflect upon.

To learn more about co-design, find our free co-design resource below. Check out a short preview of three of the seven guidelines on your left.

7 steps to co-designing inclusively

How to design with autistic young people

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Co-design is a form of activism

User stories and co-designed solutions can drive social, environmental, and political change. We encourage designers to research community-led projects for inspiration and consider the potential impact of co-design in effecting positive change.

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Co-design can cultivate transformative networks

Network development through co-design, empowerment, and knowledge exchange broadens career opportunities, strategic stakeholder mapping, and most importantly, affects social change.

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Co-design is a choice

These choices include: thorough research to understand participants' backgrounds, a focus on inclusion and empathy, utilisation of diverse learning styles, incorporation of play, and carving out time for reflection and feedback.

Creating Social Value

the Pie chart shows ... : 150 in fighting climate change, 211 in tackling economic inequality, 185 in improving community integrations, and 708 in improving health and wellbeing

The chart shows 3 statistics: 100% Play areas designed with local children, community members, and volunteers, 73% Play areas designed with naturals or reused materials and regenerative design practises, 56% Children with increased interest in technology or engineering careers

At Dream Networks, we recognise to provide resilient, tailored solutions to the challenges faced by a community, its members must be fully engaged in the process. That's why we employ or train local young people and adults to design sustainable and inclusive spaces for the community. Spaces that improve peoples wellbeing, build connection and help our society to thrive.

How we create social value

Play4All

Play for All is a global movement that calls politicians, enterprises and individuals to jointly work towards enabling play for all children, regardless of their gender, geographical location or socio-economic background.

At Dream Networks, our mission doesn't stop with building playgrounds - we actively fight against play inequality.

You can subscribe to our social media channels, or explore our blog to see the work that we do to enable play for all.

children playing with their new play area at baraa primary school

At Dream Networks we collaborate to making play accessible for all through co-designing sustainable play spaces.

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