HK$16 million buys you the ultimate play space for your children

Childhood is a time for fun and learning, and doting parents who have the means and space will spare no expense when it comes to building the ultimate home playground for their children.

"Parents who want to build a private playground for their children are looking to make play part of their child's daily life," Ramiro says. "It's important that the playground encourages unguided play, so parents and child-minders won't have to worry about constant supervision."

The ultimate dream playground should be not only fantastical and inspire wonderment in children, it should also be designed to be safe and maximise what Ramiro calls "play values" - functions that allow for educational growth, improved communication, brain stimulation, dexterity, creative thinking and improvement of hand and eye co-ordination.

Parents looking for something extraordinary can consider including swings, tunnel slides and a sand pool inside their houses.

"A tunnel slide that links the top floor to the ground floor [or] a glass ceiling that opens up automatically to allow sunlight into the house and remains shut on rainy days so children can watch the rain coming down are some ideas," Au says.

A distinctive theme is also important - it could be based on a holiday destination that the child has been to, say a miniature replica of a street in Paris, or a landscape from their favourite storybook or fairy tale.

"A well-thought-out layout and theme can boost the development of imagination, especially if the play space is designed based on environments that are not easily accessible - for instance, outer space, a safari or an underwater world," Tong says.

For the ultimate dream playground, the Play Concept team decided on a two-storey underwater design, as they feel that the world beneath the ocean provides a sense of adventure, excitement, mystery, science and fun.

The upper level is a children's gym that includes junior gym equipment such as the Tommy machine, Oscar machine, Leonard machine, Caesar machine, Yukari bike and Buck runner from Italian manufacturer Panatta Sport.

A multilevel, contained play structure with a long, green tubular slide and a curved, purple tubular slide links this upper gym level with the lower marine-themed level, allowing for effective use of underfoot space.