Ground-up City. Play as a Design Tool presents an innovative design strategy for play networks in city neighbourhoods. Such networks are not only advantageous for children, they create the necessary conditions for encounter between people of different ages and backgrounds. Ground-up City can therefore act as a template for current Dutch policy plans focused on the social and spatial restructuring of problem neighbourhoods, such as '40 districts', a national project, and the Rotterdam project 'Child-friendly neighbourhoods'.
Liane Lefaivre has developed a theoretical model for tackling playgrounds as an urban strategy. She steps off from a historical overview of play and the ludic in art, architecture and urban design. The architecture firm Döll - Atelier voor Bouwkunst explored the possibility of applying the model in two urban redevelopment areas in Rotterdam, Oude Westen in the inner city and Meeuwenplaat in Hoogvliet, an outlying postwar district, refining it into a practical design strategy.
A second layer in the book gives an inspirational and refreshing new look at play in a picture essay with a welter of reference images illustrating play as an urban phenomenon.
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