Fun Custom-Built Children's Playsets

Architect Bergendy Cooke, who worked for Zaha Hadid and Peter Marino before returning to her home country in 2007, is an admirer of the strong, sculptural architectural forms that appear in Japanese and Spanish architecture. Outside Queenstown, she put her ideas into practice in a home that would be the benchmark for bc+a studio, her own venture. The combination bunk bed and playhouse is a whimsical gesture the architect designed specifically for her two daughters. The spaces are organized in such a way that they can play independently or together.

Danish furniture and product designer Nina Tolstrup, who works under the name Studiomama, conceived a huge, freestanding medium-density fiberboard (MDF) cube punctured with circular windows that acts as her children’s playroom inside her London home.

The bed seems to soar above the playing space, held up by bookshelf columns and a carefully angled staircase.

Another backyard hotspot is the deck, built around an existing boulder, where adults can lounge while the kids climb.