A sculptural false door for a primary school playground, using the graphic language of Pop Art to explore imagination, architecture and the idea of an opening to another place.

Introduction

Tom Pearman was commissioned as part of the Capital Build Project for Winter Garden Primary School to develop a series of artworks exploring the idea of openings, doorways and journeys to other places.

The works took the form of apparently familiar architectural elements — including a door, window and stairs — which were deliberately altered or made non-functional. Installed within the school environment, they encourage a playful uncertainty between real architecture and imagined space.

False Door

The playground artwork takes the form of a faux door, fabricated from machined dual-coloured industrial plastic.

Its simplified outlines, flat areas of colour and deliberately graphic appearance reference the visual language of Roy Lichtenstein and Pop Art, making the object appear somewhere between a piece of architecture, a drawing and an enlarged comic-book image.

The artwork is fabricated from 25 mm panels, with approximately 5 mm of surface relief, giving the drawn details a physical depth while retaining the flat graphic character of the design.

Although it resembles a functional doorway, the work does not provide an entrance. Instead, the familiar architectural form becomes an object of curiosity: a door that appears to invite entry while leading nowhere.

Imagination and architecture

The wider project explored the idea of architecture as a starting point for imaginative journeys.

Doors, windows and stairs frequently operate this way in children’s literature, providing transitions between everyday environments and imagined worlds. The project drew on this tradition, including the writing of C. S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll, where apparently ordinary openings can lead somewhere unexpected.

Within a school setting, the false architectural elements encourage children to consider what might exist beyond them and to invent their own possibilities.

The work reflects the role of imagination within learning, play and problem-solving, using a familiar element of the built environment as the starting point for something deliberately ambiguous.

Wider artwork series

The playground door formed part of a wider group of site-specific works for Winter Garden Primary School, including false stairs and a window, each exploring the boundary between functional architecture and imagined space.