A Proposal To A Playful City Approach: Rethinking Urban Design For Enhanced Human Experience In Tirana

This paper discusses how the concepts of play and playfulness can serve as critical lenses to developed new insight in urban design, while proposing the "Playful City Manual", a design toolkit that can foster human experience and social interaction in contemporary urban spaces throughout ludic activity. The research uses a mixed-methods approach that combines a thematic literature review, based on the theoretical framework of "playable cities’’ and the seminal work of Huizinga's Homo Ludens and Bateson's understanding of play as metacommunication, with case studies and surveys to advocate for an original urban planning model that positions play as an essential component in the design of future cities. Such model it is used to demonstrate that playful urban environments trigger spontaneous social interaction, strengthen citizens' connection to the place they live in, and facilitate human’s creative appropriation of public spaces. Furthermore, this study presents the "Playful City Manual," a toolkit developed to translate the discussed theoretical concepts into practical design guidelines for urban planners, architects, and policymakers. The manual identifies five categories of intervention - parks, squares, streets, stairs, and residential areas - and provides a catalog of specific proposed playful nelement in order to reactivate public spaces while maintaining cultural attachment to the place. Indeed, the Manual - through the lens of play - investigates the possibility to implement playful dynamics in heterogeneous urban settings and proposes the design of dedicated areas accessible for all populations of different age groups and abilities. This resource presents a broad collection of ‘‘design for play’’ elements together with functional demonstrations that span across multiple design choices and social environments. Overall, the findings of this research demonstrate that the integration playful elements into urban planning in Tirana can significantly enhance social interaction and improve the overall quality of life for residents. To do so, five key locations in the city of Tirana are used as pilot projects to test the design guidelines proposed in the ‘‘Playful City Manual’’ and evaluate how playful interventions strengthen citizens' connection to place, generate more inclusive environments, and support emotional well-being in contemporary urban spaces.