Kaiqi Group, one of China's leading designers and manufacturers of non-powered play and family entertainment solutions, has announced it will exhibit at IAAPA Expo Europe 2026 in London this week.
For more than three decades, Kaiqi Group has grown alongside one of China’s most important playground manufacturing clusters. Now, as the company prepares for IAAPA Expo Europe, it is bringing a new generation of interactive play to the international stage.
Founded in 1995, the company now has more than 100,000 square metres of intelligent manufacturing space, two R&D and design centres in Shanghai and Wenzhou, and products installed across more than 120 countries and regions.
Its development team comprises around 120 people and works on more than 100 new products each year.
But scale is only part of the story. Kaiqi has increasingly positioned itself not simply as an equipment manufacturer, but as a partner that can take a project from early concept and creative design through engineering, production, installation, and operational planning.
That integrated approach has become a key differentiator as operators seek play environments that are not only safe and durable, but also distinctive enough to compete for families’ time and attention.
A space station comes to London
At IAAPA Expo Europe, taking place at ExCeL London from 22 to 24 September, Kaiqi will show its latest indoor soft play concept, Future Space – Cyber Sci-Fi Space Station, also presented as Stellar Ark. Visitors can find Kaiqi at booth #S5213.
Kaiqi Group will showcase its latest indoor soft play concept, Future Space – Cyber Sci-Fi Space Station (Stellar Ark)
Designed for children aged 6 to 12, the two-level play structure combines bright orange and purple finishes with atmospheric lighting to create an immersive, futuristic environment.
Rather than relying on a single play mechanic, the installation brings together tactile, visual and physical challenges. On the first level, children can interact with a record-themed activity, reaction games and a floor piano before navigating an obstacle maze, taking on a height-based challenge and trying interactive football.
The route then continues to the second level, where visitors cross a UFO-inspired rolling bridge and activate illuminated buttons to trigger lighting effects, completing the journey through the imagined space station.
The concept reflects Kaiqi’s broader approach to contemporary play design: combining physical movement with interaction and storytelling while retaining the simplicity and accessibility of non-powered attractions.
“We look forward to engaging in in-depth discussions with industry colleagues and exploring further business opportunities at IAAPA Expo Europe,” says Xuanqi Zhang, president of Kaiqi Group.
“For more than 30 years, we have remained deeply focused on non-powered amusement facilities. Looking ahead, we will continue to be guided by market demand, concentrating on the design and development of high-quality indoor and outdoor play products and creating greater value for our customers.”
From manufacturing to integrated play environments
Kaiqi’s development reflects a wider shift within China’s playground sector. The company was among the first in its field to introduce standardised production processes and has since adopted automated electrostatic coating, CNC processing, robotic welding, laser cutting, and other intelligent manufacturing technologies.
It has also accumulated more than 400 patents and helped develop Chinese standards covering non-powered play equipment, age-friendly communities, and indoor soft play safety.
Its products are designed to meet international requirements, including EN and ASTM standards, supporting a customer base spanning Europe, the Americas, Asia, and other international markets.
Kaiqi Group has been creating family entertainment solutions for over three decades
This combination of manufacturing capacity and customisation is central to Kaiqi’s proposition. Rather than treating playgrounds as standard products placed into different locations, the company develops solutions around the site, audience, cultural context, theme and budget of each project.
Its wider portfolio demonstrates how far the definition of “playground” has expanded.
Kaiqi now works across cultural tourism destinations, theme parks, municipal and community spaces, commercial developments, schools and family entertainment centres, combining play with sports, social interaction and increasingly sophisticated, themed environments.
The playground industry of Qiaoxia
Kaiqi’s manufacturing base is in Qiaoxia Town, Yongjia County, in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. For international visitors, it is a relatively little-known place, but within China’s play industry, it is highly significant.
Often described as China’s capital of educational tools and toys, Qiaoxia has developed a dense industrial ecosystem covering playground equipment, educational toys, components, design, manufacturing and supporting services. More than 1,300 toy and related businesses are reported to operate in the cluster, creating a supply chain that has developed over decades.
The town is now moving into another phase. Its development strategy places increasing emphasis on intelligent manufacturing, digitalisation and AI, with Kaiqi among the local companies investing in automated production and R&D.
Earlier this year, the company’s Qiaoxia headquarters hosted an industry conference that brought together local manufacturers, universities, technology providers and government representatives to discuss the sector's digital transformation.
For Kaiqi, that combination of local industrial depth and international ambition has shaped more than 30 years of development.
Its appearance at IAAPA Expo Europe 2026 in London is an opportunity to show how a company rooted in one of China’s most concentrated manufacturing ecosystems is evolving from scaled production toward more integrated, customised, and experience-led solutions for a global market.
