The Construction Site is based on the principles of the Bauspielplatz: a place where children, through play and construction, can reflect on how they imagine the city of their dreams by actively shaping it themselves. Leftover construction materials are repurposed as play elements, used to build huts and to imagine new worlds. Sandbags, pipes, reels, and cables are no longer used for their intended functions, but precisely for that reason become all the more compelling as materials for play.

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The Construction Site draws on long-term research into play and, more recently, the concept of the terrain vague, vacant urban spaces appropriated by children as playgrounds. This research is part of the project Onder de straatstenen, het strand (“Beneath the cobblestones, the beach”), developed together with artist-designer Annelies Vaneycken.

Such spaces often emerge during periods of transition, for example in the aftermath of the Second World War or during urban redevelopment processes. They can be found in cities such as Brussels and Arnhem, offering children space for free and unregulated play.

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The film Le chantier des gosses, of which several stills are shown in De Werf, was also an important source of inspiration. In the 1950s, filmmaker Jean Harlez documented children playing on a vacant lot in Brussels, as well as their resistance to the redevelopment of their informal playground in the face of plans by developers and architects.

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The project is part of Playtime in POST Arnhem, curated by Bas Hendrikx