Futuremakers was a design initiative with an aim to highlight the value of design and the built environment to different participatory groups through a process of play, make, build. Play is a fundamental act of making sense of ideas, material and consequences, both in childhood and continuing into adulthood. Play also helps test ideas outs between groups of people, and to resolve complex challenges that affect their environment. Paul Kidder explains Gadamer’s view ‘to engage in play…. is to follow connections, relations and associations among sensations, images and ideas in a free-flowing manner.’ This unit tested out this notion with a series of design and making exercises that encourage free-play, between a number of users, makers and players around a single idea. The making focused on creating a series of usable and connecting play-kits or large-scale toy structures that allowed for users of all ages to assemble an interconnected environment – a playscape for the public. Students used their designed ‘kits’ to construct a story or narrative around the use of an existing space, building and community group.