Published on March 18, 2025 by Ethan Rotberg, Senior Communications Specialist | Evergreen
Playfulness is often treated as an afterthought in our cities, something confined to playgrounds rather than woven into everyday life. But what if our public spaces invited everyone, from every season of life — from toddlers to seniors — to pause, interact and find joy in unexpected ways?
“At A Playful City we help communities create public places that aren’t just functional but are beautiful and meaningful to the people that live, work and play there,” says Neasa Ni Bhriain, Director of A Playful City, a Dublin, Ireland-based not-for-profit placemaking and design consultancy established in 2017. “People are becoming increasingly disconnected from their neighbours and from their communities. We bring people together through community led public space design.”
Ni Bhriain says her perspective of her home city Dublin changed after having children.
“I was working as a lawyer for 10 years and was also a parent of very young children. As a parent, it felt like Dublin didn’t really welcome me and my family in the way I felt welcomed in my 20s. There was a growing realization that the city and many of the towns around Ireland weren’t being designed for the people who lived there.”
Since co-founding A Playful City in 2017, Ni Bhriain has left her law career behind, and the A Playful City team has grown to a multidisciplinary team of people with backgrounds in architecture, design, placemaking, education and consultation. A Playful City’s vision is to work with communities and local authorities to transform overlooked and neglected public spaces into vibrant community spaces.
So how do cities ensure everyone feels welcome and can experience joy in public spaces? Ni Bhriain shares a few insights into A Playful City’s projects and how cities can reignite the spirit of play for all.
It’s important to include all voices when creating a space, says Neasa Ni Bhriain. Photo credit: A Playful City
The most successful playful spaces aren’t just designed for communities — they’re designed with them. Co-creation and community participation ensure that public spaces reflect the needs, interests and imaginations of those who use them.
“The way to create a playful community space starts with community engagement,” Ni Bhriain says. “Otherwise, you won’t get the space that people actually need or want.”
A Playful City’s approach moves beyond traditional meetings in libraries, bringing engagement directly to where people live and gather. Whether it’s outside their homes, in the space itself or as part of a local event, the process can be lighthearted — not just asking for feedback but continuously feeding back through things like pop-up events to showcase meanwhile uses of space.
“It’s a conversation — a back and forth dialogue that is squarely addressing the current model of engagement in many local authorities — there is no doubt it’s a longer process on the front end but in the end, the value is in the fact that it is the community that creates the design brief for the Local Authority.”
One of A Playful City’s collaborations, Love Our Laneways, was a pilot project aimed at transforming an underutilized and uninviting laneway into a vibrant, welcoming space shaped by the community.
During community engagement, a local woman shared that she saw foxes in the laneway every day, and nearby schoolchildren expressed excitement about supporting urban wildlife like foxes and hedgehogs. Their enthusiasm helped shape the project’s design. In the final community design brief, wildlife-friendly features and artwork reflecting the fox theme were incorporated — adding an extra layer of playfulness alongside features like play elements, site furniture and green space.
The Wriggly Way, a new section of the path that meanders for young people to follow on foot or wheels. Photo credit: A Playful City
A truly playful city isn’t just about designated parks and playgrounds — it’s about weaving play into the spaces where people move. Streets, sidewalks and travel routes should be safe and inviting for all ages, encouraging active and independent mobility while making the journey itself more engaging.
Ni Bhriain shares an example from A Playful City project, the Portlaoise Active Travel Zone, which aimed to promote active travel by encouraging walking and cycling, enhancing road safety and reimagining the public realm.
“There was a group of schools all beside each other, but because so few people were walking or cycling, congestion was terrible,” she says. “Some parents were spending 35 to 40 minutes sitting in traffic to travel just a kilometre and a half.”
The project focused on extending and enhancing the existing active travel route so that walking and cycling became the more attractive option. Out of community engagement came ideas like a series of playful interactive waymarkers; sections of meandering paths for young people to follow; children’s safety signs that depict how young cyclists, wheelers and walkers feel while travelling to school to change the narrative around active travel; and even a mascot with signage that would prompt young people with whimsical questions.
“There are moments of playfulness along the route of school, so it’s something people can look forward to — and as we all know, time flies when you’re having fun.”
The Xylophone Beat Seats. Photo credit: A Playful City
When we think of play, it’s easy to picture a traditional playground — swing sets, slides and jungle gyms. But what if we looked beyond the stereotypical play space and embraced the full potential of the cityscape for play? This could mean anything from organizing street games to creating unique play features to activating the space with public events.
In urban environments, there’s a wealth of untapped opportunities to reimagine everyday public spaces into playful, dynamic environments.
“I always think skateboarders are great for that,” Ni Bhriain says. “They look at the ‘furniture’ of cities and reimagine them as places to play. I think that’s something we can celebrate and is something that can bring more life and flexibility into our cities. How can we encourage more of that kind of incidental reimagining of the urban elements of our cities?”
An inspiring example of this creativity emerged from another project by A Playful City, where they invited design ideas for a playful installation beside a canal. The winning design came from a teenager, who created xylophone-like seats known as “Beat Seats,” which fit perfectly over jersey barriers. Passersby could simply stop and play them, adding an unexpected element of fun to the urban landscape.
The Playful Streets program aims to build stronger community connections. Photo credit: A Playful City.
Play isn’t just for kids — it’s for everyone. Imagine a space where people of all ages, from toddlers to grandparents, can enjoy moments together.
“There’s no better example of an intergenerational play space in the world than beaches,” Ni Bhriain says. “Adults being knocked over by the waves, kids digging holes, people reading books or kicking the ball around, whatever it might be. This is an intergenerational play space.”
A Playful City wants to bring this lively atmosphere into our urban landscape as well, from laneways to the neglected places across our cities and towns. In their Playful Streets project, they invited people of all ages to share the games they grew up with — often classic street games that today’s children have never even heard of.
“But beyond those elements of intergenerational play, it’s really important to have all those voices when creating a space. Play is different depending on what age you are. So, how can you incorporate all those different elements of what play can be into a space?”
Learn more
Cities need public spaces that inspire, engage and delight. Visit A Playful City online to learn more about their work to create more playful, healthy and inclusive places. Then see how vibrant, green places help improve our health and wellbeing.
