Playful interaction can be a gateway to engagement. Vivid, dynamic and tangible tools can appeal to audiences that may be out of reach for more direct interaction. This paper presents a criteriabased development of a custom AR sandbox and explores a novel approach for utilizing its features to facilitate audience engagement in a broader approach to initiate a transformative process towards flood resilience. The bespoke hardware and software solution has demonstrated its effectiveness in initial field tests as a tool to spark curiosity and engagement between audiences and experts. This approach provides a valuable opportunity to communicate specific information at a low threshold to target group.