KidZania Manila: Building a City for Kids is Serious Business
When KidZania Manila opens in a few months, children will find the ultimate roleplaying environment - a sprawling and realistic indoor child-proportioned city that is fun, entertaining, educational, and safe. What might not be immediately apparent is the over 1 billion peso-operation it took to put together a world-class educational entertainment play space, complete with a theater, hospital, central plaza, bank, university, aviation academy, fire station, buildings, factories, electric car driving streets, pavements, and alleys occupying over a 9,000-sqm, bi-level space at Park Triangle, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
"KidZania Manila will serve Filipino kids by creating an exceptional play city experience that delivers the optimum in fun, educationbased entertainment. We are building a real city for children where they will learn to be part of the workforce or run their own businesses someday. More importantly, through role-play, they will learn to become active citizens, and hopefully, discover the seeds of what creates a good community," shares Maricel Pangilinan-Arenas, State Governor for KidZania Philippines.
Attention to Detail
To bring this interactive play city to life, KidZania Manila has tapped the expertise of the best planners, designers, builders, and other specialists locally and internationally.
"KidZania Manila is a massive and complex project on a scale never before attempted locally. Every aspect of the experience has been entrusted to the most talented and committed professionals who pay attention to the enormous amount of detail that makes this project challenging and interesting... and yes, wonderful," adds Pangilinan-Arenas.
Langdon & Seah Philippines, Inc. (LSPI) are the project managers and quantity surveyors, with Brian Parsons at the helm. LSPI has worked on many award-winning public and private projects in the country, such as the Zuellig Building in Makati, East La Mesa Water Treatment Plant Administration Building in Manila, and Central Square and Arya Residences in Taguig City.
One of the largest independent engineering consultancy firms in the world, the Meinhardt Group is accountable for mechanical and electrical engineering. Their most notable projects include Singapore's Marina Bay Financial Center, the UK's Virgin Atlantic Hangar, and the Dubai Mall. Structural engineering services were provided by Tandem Engineering Consultancy, which lists banks, schools, and other companies here and abroad among its clients.
Top local contractor Will Decena &
Educational and Realistic
Associates Inc. was selected for interior fitouts while Themebuilders Philippines Inc., a European-managed, Pampanga-based design firm took care of the building façades and trees. Construction work is managed by Design Coordinates, Inc., which has done many of the country's iconic projects including the Supreme Court in Ermita and the GSIS building in Pasay.
To fit 100 role-play activities in over 70 establishments, the play city is configured around a town hall or market square. Driving streets, a one-way track, pavements, and alleys on the ground floor and mezzanine lead to the center, giving visitors many viewpoints for a beautiful and realistic simulation. The key modification was in kidscaling and simplifying the infrastructure to maximize impact on children.
Like all KidZania franchises all over the world, the main architecture and interior design for KidZania Manila came from the global KidZania headquarters in Mexico. These were adapted locally by AIDEA Philippines Inc., a firm recognized by BCI Asia and in a list of top 100 architects by the Building Design World Architecture for its projects in and out of Asia.
Helping AIDEA establish the sights and sounds of a bustling modern city are internationally awarded scenographer and stage designer Mio Infante and his Sceneshop team, and multi-awarded technical theater expert, Jay Aranda. The theater, with sound system from ROS Acoustic Solutions led by acoustician Ray O. Sison, has a main façade inspired by the Nelly Garden heritage house in Jaro, Iloilo. The same company behind Greenbelt and Bonifacio High Street's lighting design, Christine Sicangco Lighting Design, Inc., is charged with lighting design.
Taking the realism to another level, KidZania Manila will even have a building that will let young firemen-in-training practice putting out pretend flames. This and the KidZania Independence Fountain are built by Industron Inc., which has been creating interactive water exhibition designs for the last 40 years.
Safe and Sustainable Play Space
For kids to be able to explore and discover KidZania Manila freely, their safety must be of utmost priority.
The team is working together to ensure proper proportion to children's heights to avoid accidents, and provide anti-slip flooring, heavily secured access points, clear directional signages, and no sharp edges. There are also top-notch network security and fire prevention systems provided by HMR Solutions and Yomeco. As added measure, the children will wear RFIDenabled security bracelets.
KidZania Manila's team of builders is also finding ways to introduce kids to sustainable and environment-friendly practices in a playful manner. Electric vehicles will be employed in KidZania Manila's streets. Plans are underway for kid-scaled alternative power generation activities to show the impact of different energy supply systems. Energy-efficient air-conditioning systems, LED lights, and low-flow water features will also be in use.
"We aim to create one of the most memorable and enriching KidZania experiences in the world, cognizant of both the universal and unique needs of Filipino children in a developing nation such as ours. KidZania Manila is our expression of faith and hope in the future. We hope to inspire Filipino children to purposefully be, to know, to care, to share, to create, and to play - empowering them to believe that a better community, a better world is possible through their actions," adds Pangilinan-Arenas.