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Building a free-play-friendly city: An interdisciplinary collaboration in place-making = 建立一個自由遊戲友善的城市：跨學科合作的環境營造
Principal Investigator
Department
Grant Awarding Body
Research Grants Council
Grant Type
Inter-Institutional Development Scheme (IIDS)
Project Code
UGC/IIDS15/H03/24
Amount Awarded
HK$517,785
Funding Year
2024-2025
Duration of the Project
10 months
Status
Ongoing
Abstract
Free play is unstructured, spontaneous, and voluntary play activities driven by an individual’s own will and choices. While free play is often considered indoors, active free play outdoors in open spaces should be addressed. In urban environments such as Hong Kong, the planning, design, and control of play spaces have traditionally been governed by professionals such as policymakers, urban planners, and architects. This top-down approach has led to the gradual evolution of regulations that focus on management and accident prevention, resulting in long lists of restrictions and limitations. In the context of play spaces, this creates many restrictions about who is allowed to play, when and where play can occur, and how play is defined. In these circumstances, advocating for free-play-friendly public spaces is essential.
In this regard, place-making is an initiative for planning and designing free-play-friendly public spaces. Place-making is a collaborative process that involves reimagining and reinventing public spaces to enhance the connection between people and the places they share. Place-making facilitates community engagement, builds social capital, and enhances community capacity for action, ultimately fostering an inclusive environment that encourages free play. Adopting a place-making approach to building a free-play-friendly environment is still in its early stages in Hong Kong. We need to consolidate experiences and identify key elements and strategies for co-creating a free-play-friendly environment.
This project “Building a free-play-friendly city: An interdisciplinary collaboration in place-making’, consists of pre-conference workshops and visits (1 day) and the main conference (1.5 days). Target participants include scholars, practitioners, policymakers, NGO staff, urban planners, architects, social designers, cultural and heritage conservators, and students. The pre-conference workshops will be conducted in parallel, with two workshops (3.5 hours each) for invited knowledgeable speakers to share practical experiences in place-making and engage communities in co-creating free play spaces. Participants will actively participate in the workshops to learn critical approaches to place-making. There will also be a half-day visit to a project featuring place-making for free play in the community.
The 1.5-day main conference will feature local and international speakers presenting research and practical experiences in designing public play spaces for free play. There will be three keynote speeches and three symposium sessions. The symposium themes will include cross-cultural dialogue, the social impact of free-play-friendly environments, and best practices in school environment. Each symposium will have two to three speakers sharing their place-making and free-play expertise. Networking meetings will be arranged for speakers and stakeholders to exchange collaborative ideas on place-making and free play. Round-table discussions will be conducted to foster collaborative efforts among scholars and stakeholders, aiming for mid- and long-term impact.
In this regard, place-making is an initiative for planning and designing free-play-friendly public spaces. Place-making is a collaborative process that involves reimagining and reinventing public spaces to enhance the connection between people and the places they share. Place-making facilitates community engagement, builds social capital, and enhances community capacity for action, ultimately fostering an inclusive environment that encourages free play. Adopting a place-making approach to building a free-play-friendly environment is still in its early stages in Hong Kong. We need to consolidate experiences and identify key elements and strategies for co-creating a free-play-friendly environment.
This project “Building a free-play-friendly city: An interdisciplinary collaboration in place-making’, consists of pre-conference workshops and visits (1 day) and the main conference (1.5 days). Target participants include scholars, practitioners, policymakers, NGO staff, urban planners, architects, social designers, cultural and heritage conservators, and students. The pre-conference workshops will be conducted in parallel, with two workshops (3.5 hours each) for invited knowledgeable speakers to share practical experiences in place-making and engage communities in co-creating free play spaces. Participants will actively participate in the workshops to learn critical approaches to place-making. There will also be a half-day visit to a project featuring place-making for free play in the community.
The 1.5-day main conference will feature local and international speakers presenting research and practical experiences in designing public play spaces for free play. There will be three keynote speeches and three symposium sessions. The symposium themes will include cross-cultural dialogue, the social impact of free-play-friendly environments, and best practices in school environment. Each symposium will have two to three speakers sharing their place-making and free-play expertise. Networking meetings will be arranged for speakers and stakeholders to exchange collaborative ideas on place-making and free play. Round-table discussions will be conducted to foster collaborative efforts among scholars and stakeholders, aiming for mid- and long-term impact.