Youth-Led Interior Design Commission – Playland, Portsmouth
Artswork, working in partnership with young cultural changemakers at Playland, Portsmouth, is seeking an experienced interior designer to work collaboratively with young people aged 16 to 30 to redesign our youth-led creative space.
We want Playland to feel welcoming, cohesive and more like a home for the young people who use it, while remaining a versatile space that can accommodate exhibitions, performances, workshops, meetings and other youth-led creative activity.
Young people will be central to the design process. We are not looking for an interior designer to arrive with a ready-made solution. We want to appoint someone who can listen, interpret the ideas and priorities of young people, bring professional design expertise to the process and develop the space with them.
Context
Playland supports young people aged 16 to 30 to develop creative projects, build skills and create opportunities for themselves and their communities.
Young people have opportunities to lead workshops in creative skills and practices of their choice and to turn their ideas into reality, whether that means developing an exhibition, leading a community project or exploring a new area of creative practice. For many, this represents their first experience of facilitating or leading creative activity.
We are currently exploring ideas around third spaces, community cohesion, belonging and the future and legacy of Playland through listening consultations with young people. The findings from this work will help inform the redesign of the space.
Brief
We want to transform Playland into a more welcoming, accessible, cohesive and practical environment that reflects the ideas and identities of the young people who use it.
The interior designer will work closely with Playland’s young cultural changemakers and the Artswork team to translate ideas arising from our listening and co-design process into a coherent and achievable design.
The space should feel comfortable and homely while retaining the flexibility needed for a wide range of creative, community and everyday activity.
The commission will include:
- reviewing findings and materials from Playland’s listening consultations;
- planning and facilitating an inclusive and engaging co-design process with young people;
- exploring how colour, furniture, lighting, materials and the overall arrangement of the space can create a stronger sense of welcome and belonging;
- considering accessibility, sensory needs and the experiences of neurodivergent young people throughout the design process;
- finding practical and creative solutions to Playland’s storage needs;
- ensuring that the space can be adapted for exhibitions, performances, workshops, meetings and everyday activity;
- considering how existing furniture and features can be retained, reused or adapted where appropriate;
- working alongside the commissioned mural artist to ensure that the mural forms part of a coherent overall design;
- working alongside the young person leading the window-design commission and helping the team consider how the window design relates to the wider space;
- developing a realistic plan for realising the design within the available delivery budget and timetable; and
- working collaboratively with Artswork, its contractors, suppliers and other commissioned creative practitioners during implementation.
A fee of up to £8000 is available for this work to include the artist’s time, travel, expenses, workshop materials and VAT.
A separate production budget for the production /installation is available of up to £8000.
Deadline: 17.00 Monday 16 November 2026
Submit a Proposal
Please submit:
- a short expression of interest of no more than two sides of A4, explaining:
- why you are interested in the commission;
- how you would approach the co-design process;
- how your experience relates to the brief; and
- how you would take the project from design through to realisation;
- your CV or a summary of relevant experience; and
- up to five examples of relevant work, or a link to an online portfolio.
We do not expect applicants to develop a design for Playland at application stage. We are primarily interested in your approach, experience and ability to work collaboratively with young people.
Please send your application to Anastasia Alexandru at anastasiaalexandru@artswork.org.uk by 5pm on Monday 16 November 2026.
Applications will be assessed against the criteria set out in this brief by a selection panel that includes young people involved in Playland.
Shortlisted applicants will be invited to an interview at Playland on Monday 23 or Tuesday 24 November 2026. Please let us know if you require access support or reasonable adjustments to participate in the application or interview process.
Find out more about the work we have been doing at Playland.