The Playable City: Refeshioning Spaces within Urban Social Design

Play is an essential part of life, a vital part of urban design, and in the case of Newcastle a possible panacea for late night inner-city anti-social behaviour. This presentation introduces a pilot urban design project focused on the design of sets of interactive ‘henges’ across three central Newcastle city locations. Developed through collaborative design with the city council and local SMEs, these henges feature site-specific digital and sensor-based forms of interaction. They represent an innovative approach to shifting patterns of night-time anti-social behaviour within specific locations by reimagining these sites as arenas for individual and social play. The henge sites aim to prompt discussion with city communities over the value of play within urban design and engage citizens in future smart city initiatives. This presentation discusses the challenges of deploying interactive technologies within urban social design, argues for the need to prioritise forms of play within smart city planning, and outlines a collaborative research design involving multiple urban stakeholders.