Pavilions of Wonder: What Does Joy Look Like?

What might joy look, sound or feel like if children were invited to design it? 

For Rocket Design Week 2024, this question became the starting point for Pavilions of Wonder, inspired by Nina Tolstrup of Studiomama and her work with interactive structures. Families contributed mirrors, fabrics, old CDs and everyday objects, which children transformed into their own multisensory environments.

A music wall appeared, alongside an atelier of light and a night sky created through experiments with reflection, colour, movement and material properties. The unfamiliar possibilities of ordinary objects, particularly the shifting colours and reflections of old CDs, became a wonderful source of curiosity.

What interested our teachers and Learning Engineers was what happened when children were given greater freedom over the direction of their projects, with versatile materials and time to revisit their ideas. Compared with more structured, adult-led experiences, teachers reported deeper and more sustained involvement, greater satisfaction in making something together, and children becoming increasingly willing to experiment and collaborate. The Shades of Joy jars invited children and families to share how the environments made them feel, with excitement and delight featuring prominently. Educators found themselves drawn into the experience too, recalling their own memories of joy and rediscovering the pleasure of making without a prescribed outcome.

One child described the pavilion as “magic”, while a parent wished they could be a child again. Beyond these lovely moments, the project offered a valuable insight for our ongoing practitioner inquiry: creative permission can begin with relatively small changes to the learning environment. Protecting time, introducing unfamiliar or open-ended materials and allowing children greater ownership of the process appeared to enrich engagement, collaboration and the experience of learning for children and adults alike. 

Sometimes, making space for wonder means offering a little less direction and discovering just how much more children can bring.

▶ Watch our short video below