Check out any number of the high-end, full-service apartment buildings sprouting up around the world and you’ll see no shortage of sophisticated amenities: rooftop garden, swimming pool, gym, mosque, playground.
Developers, it seems, have thought of everything for the affluent, urbane adult, but that focus is now pivoting to children.
Developers and architects are dreaming up ever more innovative ideas to keep children engaged while they are hanging out at home, whether that’s by incorporating a cave in the bowels of the building or a specially commissioned sculptural net for the little ones to climb on.
Some apartment residents can enjoy taking a dip in swimming pools, some developers are creating a play space.
“It’s definitely a trend,” said one resident from Dhanmondi area. “The area has a tremendous amount of families with infants and toddlers so now developers decide to create a playground or garden just for them.”
But it’s not just any room: the play space has, as its centrepiece, in some apartment.
“Families are choosing to stay in cities instead of moving to the suburbs,” Rafique, a real estate developer said. “So we’ve had to create extra areas within the building that they would be able to have in a house.”
Developers and designers are also noticing an uptick in demand as families see child-friendly amenities as valuable perks.
“We wanted to create fun surprises, like you would find in a resort,” Momrez, another real estate developer said.
“We could imagine kids giggling, having fun, jumping back into the pool and so we focus on this issue on our ongoing and upcoming projects,” he said of the development, which is now in its last phase of construction.
“There are no kids’ buildings in the area,” said Afrin, a resident of Gulshan. “Everything that was being built nearby was for parties and cool stuff. But a lot of our buyers have big families and so developers should think there would be a market to do something cool and fun that would attract families.”
Fundamentally, experts say, developers need to be thinking more about a streamlined, minimalist aesthetic and how families can enjoy being with each other within the footprint of a building.
“In some ways, we’ve forgotten about the activities that people used to like to do,” Afrin said.
“It’s good to have these places, even in urban settings, where kids can run around and be kids.”
Latest News