Desert Playgola, a temporary children's play pavilion in downtown El Paso

What does a street look like from 95 centimetres up? That question shaped Desert Playgola, a temporary pavilion by Miguel Mendoza of Nómada Estudio Urbano, built for El Paso's Chalk the Block public art festival on 3–4 October 2026 and commissioned by the city's Museums & Cultural Affairs Department. It borrows from Urban95, a Van Leer Foundation initiative asking designers to see cities at roughly a toddler's height, and the name joins 'play' and 'pergola'.

The structure is a timber frame on concrete block bases, hung with iridescent curtains that move in the wind. Recycled pallets form low platforms covered in artificial turf, and interlocking MDF sculptures stand in for prickly pear cacti. The Chihuahuan Desert supplies the imagery, from ocotillo to the local terrain, and some of the hanging pieces come together as a face, so from a distance the whole thing reads like a friendly character on the street.

There is no set route: children duck between curtains, climb, touch and pause as they like. It sat on a pedestrian stretch of W Main Drive beside La Nube, the city's interactive museum. The studio sums it up as a city that plays being a city that cares.

The project reached designboom as a reader submission. The festival has passed, so this is one to read about rather than visit, though La Nube is next door.

Our summary of a story from designboom, published 29 October 2026. Read the original

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