Play is essential, for children but also adults. It’s how we relax and revitalise ourselves, build and maintain friendships, try new things, learn and innovate…

Join Alex Bonham, with Sophie Jerram (Urban Dream Brokerage), to explore her fascinating new book on the concept of the Playful City. Alex explores how we need our cities to encourage and facilitate play of all kinds more than ever. If we want a world for our children to play in, we need to have a go at doing things differently.

A city that is enjoyable to live in – that provides welcoming spaces, plentiful resources, and an attitude of ‘yes, you can’ – is a playful city. A city that is good for eight-year-olds as well as eighty-year-olds is a city that’s good for all of us.

By looking at how different cities across space and time have sought to encourage and facilitate play, Bonham shows us how to conceptualise our own contemporary city as a game, and encourages us to become participants rather than spectators.

About Alex Bonham
Alex was raised in the UK, and worked in publishing and the arts before travelling overland to her mother’s native New Zealand in 2008. She now lives in Auckland with her husband, two children and a pack of dogs and campaigns for a more vibrant and sustainable, all-ages-friendly city. She has two Masters degrees, one in Law, the other in Drama and she is currently working towards a doctorate on the Playful City.

About Sophie Jerram
Sophie is passionate about artistic activations of shared spaces and is the co-founder of Letting Space and Urban Dream Brokerage platforms for artists and communities. She is a Trustee of Vogelmorn Community Group, is a self-determining community in the south of Brooklyn. Sophie is currently consulting with Wellington City whilst working as a Research Fellow with Auckland University on Toi Taiao Whakatairanga, drawing together the complex systems of art, science and mātauranga practice in the forests. Her PhD on commoning and artistic practice is due to be completed later this year.