The Ludic City: Exploring the Potential of Public SpacesThis international and illustrated work challenges current writings focussing on the problems of urban public space to present a more nuanced and dialectical conception of urban life. Detailed and extensive international urban case studies show how urban open spaces are used for play, which is defined and discussed using Caillois' four-part definition – competition, chance, simulation and vertigo. Stevens explores and analyzes these case studies according to locations where play has been observed: paths, intersections, thresholds, boundaries and props. Applicable to a wide-range of countries and city forms, The Ludic City is a fascinating and stimulating read for all who are involved or interested in the design of urban spaces. |
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actions andthe audience Benjamin bodily boundaries Bourke Street Mall bythe Caillois casino city’s competition creative critique crowd cyclists dance defined desires dialectical distance distraction diversity doorway edge encounters engagement environment escape everyday experience exposure Figure Flinders Street footpath forms frames freedom fromthe function Gehl Gilloch Goffman highlights instrumental interactions intersections inthe involvement isan landscape Lefebvre 1991b Lefebvre’s Leicester Square leisure liminal Love Parade Lynch meanings Melbourne Melbourne’s Moomba movement moving needs noninstrumental ofplay ofthe ofurban one’s onthe opportunities parade particular passersby passive path pedestrian people’s perception performance physical play playful activities playful behavior possible potential production props psychogeography public space Queensbridge rangeof representational risk sensory Situationists skateboarders skaters social relations Southbank Promenade spatial spontaneous stimulate strangers structure Swanston Walk symbolic teenagers tension thatthe thecity theyare Three Businessmen thresholds tobe tothe transgressive Unitary Urbanism urban design urban public urban space urbanspace users vertigo whichare