People forming their environment by play

How play can be useful in cities.

I like to recommend a text of Michiel de Lange:

de Lange, Michiel. 2015. “The Playful City: Using Play and Games to Foster Citizen Participation.” In Social Technologies and Collective Intelligence, edited by Aelita Skaržauskienė, 426-434.

He is talking about smart cities. According to him smart cities are the cities that are people-centred. He explains how play can help to create this smart city. Play can simplify big urban problems. Through play people can engage with their environment. It promotes experiment, creativity and innovation.

Read this text to get grip on the usefulness of play in cities.
Interested in this subject? You can also read this text of Miguel Sicart:
Sicart, Miguel. 2016. “Play and the City.” Navigationen special issue” Playin’ the City: Artistic and Scientific Approaches to Playful Urban Arts” no. 16 (1): 25-40.
The site Pop-up city also gives attention to play and gamification in cities:
Play to keep the environment clean: http://popupcity.net/trash-and-treasure-the-game/
Slides in railway stations http://popupcity.net/slide-to-the-train/

Gentrification

For this research we wanted to look at the influence of the environment on people and the influence of people on the environment. For an other research I read about gentrification. In these texts I found it very interesting to see how much influence people have on their environment. For example in Prenz Lauerberg, Berlin. Urban planners tried to make the neighborhood a better place, without banishing the residents. But there are coming new people. Residents feel alienated, because of the coming of those new people. Read for example the text of Kate Shaw. It makes you also think about what can we plan in a city and what is just happening.

Text:
Shaw, Kate, ‘The place of alternative culture and the politics of its protection in Berlin, Amsterdam and Melbourne’, Planning theory and practice 16 (2005) nr. 2, pp. 149-169.

 

Prezi photo collages

Hong Kong

https://prezi.com/embed/8ivhqemlyqg-/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&landing_data=bHVZZmNaNDBIWnNjdEVENDRhZDFNZGNIUE43MHdLNWpsdFJLb2ZHanI5N2VkSHp4OUR4a1lYQWFiSHVadDRJRGZnPT0&landing_sign=LQ1IXCOy7cSlWCobfrxW15UHbjsKWOOxMMw1bDRquts

The Netherlands

https://prezi.com/embed/pujbbq4ejm4b/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&landing_data=bHVZZmNaNDBIWnNjdEVENDRhZDFNZGNIUE43MHdLNWpsdFJLb2ZHanI0dDRrTEIyM25LZWl6ck42bGZHUDJlbFB3PT0&landing_sign=fNvnCMbPuuyA48yvVVQVN28QuYj2DyuMQ3rzWVYCCf4

 

 

Welcome

Welcome on the website of the research exchange between Hong Kong University and Utrecht University. Here we will keep you up to date about all our projects, our events in Hong Kong and Utrecht and the progression in our research.

In the top bar you can find overall information about the research exchange, the different group projects and the 15 participants. Here you will also find our agenda for the weeks filled with events in Hong Kong and Utrecht, and contact information.

In the left sidebar we will keep you up to date about the progressions in our different projects through blogposts, photos and videos.

Enjoy!