THE WINNERS OF THE 2022 EDITION OF THE REAL PLAY CITY CHALLENGE HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED!
The winners of the 2022 Real Play City Challenge were revealed on November 18 by the Real Play Coalition, ahead of World Children’s Day on Sunday (20 November). Run with PlacemakingX, a global network of advocates who accelerate placemaking as a way to create healthy and inclusive communities, the international competition celebrates and awards inspiring uses of play to tackle global challenges.
The expert jury selected the winning cities and urban practitioners for creating places that give people time, space, and opportunities to play, to help their community tackle three global challenges—Climate change, inclusivity and conflict.
Winners of the ‘Places where play heals people’ category utilise play to help communities through issues of trauma and conflict, ‘Places where play supports climate action’, were recognised for enabling a community response to climate change, and winners of the ‘Places where play unites us all’ are addressing inequality through play.
One city and one urban practitioner project has been awarded the win across each theme, and the jury selected several highly commended projects.
Places where play heals people:
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Winning urban practitioner: Girl Awakening by Colours of Connection, Democratic Repulic of the Congo
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Winning city: Pocket Parks as a Healer by Kohima Smart City Development, India
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Highly commended:
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Baytna Hub by Athens Comic Library & We Are Community, Athens, Greece
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Changing Faces Competition by Public Space Network, Nairobi, Kenya
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No child left behind by White Helmets (well known as Syria Civil Defense), Idlib, Syria
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Places where play supports climate action:
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Winning urban practitioner: Climate Smart Play Space by Holistic Actions for Development and Empowerment (HADE), Uganda
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Winning city: Breath and Play Freely by Indore Smart City Development, India
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Highly commended:
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A Playground That Comes Alive When It Rains, Erect Architecture, London, UK
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Climate Ready Schools: The Irma Coulson Public School by Evergreen, Canada
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Grey > Green = Gold by Space For Play, the Netherlands
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Places where play unites us all:
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Winning urban practitioner: Vivo Mi Calle by Despacio, Colombia
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Winning city: Greater Warangal, Greater Warangal, Municipal Corporation, India
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Highly commended:
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Autocoles by Basurama, Madrid, Spain
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Play Friendly Slums by Rourkela Smart City, India
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WANT TO LEARN HOW TO CREATE PLACES FOR PLAY AND EXPLORE ABOUT INSPIRING EXAMPLES FROM AROUND THE WORLD?
We joined forces with networks, podcast creators and advocates for better public spaces from all around the world and launched series of webinars, podcasts and regional meetings to highlight the importance of play and placemaking as catalysts for change. You can find us at:
Check out the Urbanistica's channel, where Mustafa Sherif has recently led a series of interviews with Real Play Coalition partners and placemakers working on playful placemaking initiatives for all. Listen to them here:
306. OPEN CALL to Real Play City Challenge - Hannah Wright
318. The LEGO Foundation & Real Play City Challenge - Bo Stjerne Thomsen
321. UNICEF's play hubs in neighbouring countries of Ukraine - Jessica Katharine Brown
On the Peacemakers Pakistani channel you will find a recent interview by Azbah Ansari with Sara Candiracci from ARUP, in which they discuss the Real Play City Challenge as well as ARUP's work related to the Urban Play Framework, Playful Cities Toolkit and much more.
Listen to it here:
Real Play City Challenge 2022 with Sara Candiracci | Special Podcast
We invite you to listen to a full series of 6 episodes recorded by Boopsie Maran, Founder and Director of Places for Good, together with various speakers discussing case studies on the three main themes of the Real Play City Challenge.
Episode 0 - Viviana Cordero | Episode 1- Riccardo Conti
Episode 2 - Guillermo Bernal | Episode 3 - Zviko Kanyoka
Episode 4-Vanessa Lainez | Episode 5-Minouche Besters
On 18 July, more than 150 people from 12 Latin American countries met online to talk about the importance of play and placemaking for the region. You can watch the full webinar here and register your interest at this link to stay connected with the Latin American placemaking network and receive the latest updates.
The PlacemakingUS network met on July 28th to discuss play and placemaking. Various members of the network shared inspiring case studies from the region. You can watch the full webinar on YouTube:
Real Play City Challenge - US Info Session by Placemaking US
Click here for more inspirations, including webinars, frameworks, keynotes and more!
WHAT IS THE REAL PLAY CITY CHALLENGE?
The Real Play City Challenge awards inspiring cities and urban practitioners that have successfully used placemaking to create environments that give people time, space and opportunities to play.
The Real Play City Challenge is an international competition led by the Real PlayCoalition (Arup, Ingka Group [IKEA], The LEGO Foundation, National Geographic, and UNICEF) and PlacemakingX (represented by STIPO and Huasipichanga).
THIS YEAR’S THEME - LOCAL COMMUNITIES, GLOBAL CHALLENGES.
After a hugely successful launch in 2019, we are back in 2022 to help cities overcome pressing global challenges in their local communities and neighbourhoods through playful placemaking.
WHY USE PLACEMAKING FOR CREATING PLAYFUL PLACES?
Placemaking is a global movement to improve public spaces together with the community, by learning from small interventions in order to create a great and long lasting impact. Placemaking is a creative, fun and playful approach that builds on the community's participation and their collective vision to realise a better public realm. Throughout the world civic initiatives, artists, and community organisers work together with local policy makers and social entrepreneurs to turn a place around. By working together to reclaim public spaces for play, they can completely change the city experience for all.
