From March to October 2024, A Playful City collaborated with community stakeholders to reimagine Rainbow Park in Dublin’s NEIC. Through workshops, surveys and prototype events, the project tackled safety concerns, limited access, and lack of amenities. A community-led brief was developed to guide the park’s transformation into an inclusive, vibrant space, supported by local organisations and residents.

In 2023, A Playful City with SWAN Youth Service launched a youth entrepreneurship project centred on a custom-built “Enterprise Mobile” stall. Young participants co-designed events, explored food and creative businesses and engaged the public through Culture Night and community picnics. Workshops with artists and business mentors built confidence, skills and even certifications.

A Playful City and SWAN Youth Service empowered young people to reclaim public space along Charleville Mall. Entirely youth-led, the initiative transformed an overlooked area with murals, live music, pop-up cafes and social spaces designed by and for teenagers. By shifting focus from “anti-social behaviour” to ownership and belonging, the project fostered pride, creativity and safer public environments for young people.

Developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Making the Walls Talk empowered young people in Dublin’s NEIC to express their pandemic-related anxieties, hopes and frustrations through murals and visual storytelling. Co-created by A Playful City and SWAN Youth Service, the initiative transformed ordinary walls into youth-designed platforms that amplified their voices, fostered civic pride and fostered dialogue in public space.

The Floating Festival at Spencer Dock, co-hosted by SWAN Youth Service, A Playful City and HubSpot, combined family fun with water safety education. Alongside games, performances and river activities, a key outcome was the training of over 300 local young people—many of whom use the canals as informal swimming spots—in essential lifesaving and water safety skills, creating a safer, more connected waterfront community.

Designed in 2018 by Barry Sheehan (Head of Design, TU Dublin School of Art and Design) in collaboration with A Playful City and supported by HubSpot, the Zig Zag is a bold, sculptural seating installation at Spencer Dock, Dublin Docklands. Its undulating blue platform, featuring vibrant patterned decals and a central tree, offers a playful, inclusive social space for sitting, chatting, or contemplation. It served as a temporary “beta” public seating trial to test public engagement and inform future urban design interventions.

Hosted by A Playful City and with kind support from Bank of Ireland and KLM Airlines, Design Meets Play brought together designers, planners, artists, educators and creativity leaders to explore how play can transform urban environments. With over 20 speakers, interactive panels, workshops, and city walks, the conference focused on designing playful cities—turning consultation insights into prototypes for playful interventions across Dublin’s public realm.

The inaugural Playful Streets event on Sheriff Street, temporarily closing off the street to traffic and inviting children and neighbours to reclaim their local space. The event featured street games, music—including a Garda Band concert—and community-led clean-up efforts, aiming to foster informal play and social connection in a neighbourhood often overlooked by urban development.

The Spiel Mobile is a playful, mobile consultation tool developed by A Playful City in collaboration with Sean Harrington Architects. It creates pop‑up engagement spaces that invite people of all ages and abilities to share insights on local public spaces. Designed to lead to real impact, the Spiel Mobile helps communities co-create playful environments through accessible, inclusive, on‑the‑ground feedback and design input.