Long Beach Parking Lot

This parking lot – formerly used by a bank – has since been retrofitted with some yellow paint, a bicycle corral, two kickball stands, several chairs and umbrellas, and a wonderful mural of famed musician, Jim Morrison.

؜Wooden Mountain Playground

Named Moku-Yama, which translates to "wooden mountain" in Japanese, the structure is made of clusters of "sustainable" timber logs grouped together vertically to form interactive peaks and valleys.

Pink Alley

Vancouver's Pink Alley, an initiative to convert a formerly unused space into a destination/ place for activity

https://604now.com/pink-valley-vancouver-2019/

Rethinking Melbourne's car parks

https://architectureau.com/articles/aa-prize-for-unbuilt-work-2021-winner/

City of London's Parklet Initiative

Parklets are small, semi-permanent repurpose parking spaces into public spaces, offering amenities like seating, planting, and art, to improve urban environments and benefit local communities. London has a goal of installing a pellet every 50 meters.

https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/policy-reports-and-research/parklets/

Tirana, Albania's School Streets

Tirana's mayor set a grand plan to refashion Albania’s capital city as a more walkable, more sustainable, less car-dependent city—specifically by placing the needs of the city’s youngest citizens at its forefront. 

https://www.bloomberg.org/blog/an-albanian-city-creatively-reclaims-streets-for-kids/

https://basurama.org/en/projects/city-for-children-under-99-years-old/

Created by brazilian office of @basuramaoficial with discarded metal oil barrels, a neighbourhood plaza in Rio de Janeiro´s Casa Daros was transformed into a playground! In this play structure, children and adults can interact with the materials and the spaces, which show the creative possibilities of ‘waste’.

A Playground for children under the age of 99

AirBubble creates a purified microclimate for children to play in, a true bubble of clean air in the centre of Warsaw (Poland). The project is located within the public green space outside of the Copernicus Science Centre. The playground cleans the air as children play through a system of air-purifying microalgae.

AirBubble

Keys to the Streets

When the “Keys To The Streets” program unleashed four public pianos onto unsuspecting Vancouverites last summer, the results were extraordinary. Public plazas were quickly transformed into impromptu concert venues, as citizens gathered with various instruments (or just their voices) to join in on the action.

Seattle's International Fountain bring music and water together in a wide-open plaza next to the Space Needle, and can always be see full of kids playing and running.

International Fountain

"Invisible Music" Houston, TX



A series of interactive land-based sculptures placed in the greenspace near the pond can be activated by participants through various levers, with each playing its own unique sound.

Irving Street in San Fransisco

Irving Street in San Francisco's Inner Sunset neighborhood is known for being kid-friendly.

The Pool by Artist Jen Lewin in Industry City, Brooklyn, NY invites visitors to walk, jump, and dance on interactive circular pads that respond with light and color.

The Pool

Playful Learning Landscapes through the Brookings Institute seeks to address learning inequalities that exist outside of the classroom by marrying the science of learning with urban design and placemaking by embedding learning opportunities in places where families regularly go—such as bus stops, supermarkets, and parks.

PLL

Barcelona's superblock program, also known as "superilles," is an urban planning initiative that prioritizes people and sustainability by reconfiguring city blocks to reduce car traffic and create more public space for pedestrians and cyclists. 

Barcelona Superblock

Munich Scavenger Hunt

The ‘Urban Thinkscape’ is a collection of playful games and puzzles which stimulate curiosity and the imagination. A simple way to alter the public realm into a space for play.

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Philadelphia Urban Thinkscape

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/feb/25/set-children-free-are-playgrounds-a-form-of-incarceration