Designing a Playable City. New Planning Tools for the Twenty-First Century

The concept of play as an essential urban element has recently gained prominence in urban planning, moving beyond the traditional playground paradigm to a holistic perspective of a ‘playable city.’ This paper investigates the emerging plan-ning tool of Play Plans, with a comparative analysis of the only two known examples: the “Pla del joc a l’espai públic” developed in Barcelona and the “Play Strategy and Action Plan” from Dublin. Through qualitative analysis of policy documents and a review of existing literature, the study identifies key principles, strategies, and imple-mentation approaches, contextualizing the plans within contemporary urban planning trends. The findings highlight significant convergences between the two plans, such as the recognition of play as a fundamental right, the shift towards a playable city model, and the emphasis on citizen participation and integration of public and school spaces. Divergences are evident in the operationalization of the plans, with Barcelona adopting a more concrete, resource-backed approach and Dublin focusing on regu-latory frameworks without dedicated financial resources. The study contributes to defining the concept and potential of Play Plans as tools for promoting inclusive and sustainable cities. While the plans surpass the limitations of traditional playgrounds, their experimental nature calls for further research to evaluate their effectiveness and scalability. Play Plans represent an emerging practice in urban planning, with the potential to become standard tools for fostering playable, accessible, and inclusive cities. Future studies should explore their integration with cross-cutting policies, such as sustainability and mobility, to fully harness their transformative potential.