Playground 🛝

1 in 3 building projects in the Netherlands is delayed due to direct citizen objections. 📮 Last week, our CityO (CTO) Nojus Kybartas stepped on the stage at Lithuania's AI Hackathon to present our solution for mitigating building delays and our custom neighborhood index of over 1mil data points to give us hidden city insights on what and where to build. 🌆 Within 3 minutes of the pitch, we got 60+ people engaged on our Playground Platform, sharing their thoughts about their city. With Playground, city builders can get instant insights into their neighborhoods, residents, and needs. ⚡ Have a look here: https://plgrnd.city/

💡Playground 🛝 enters the #MobilityInnovationMarketplace💡 We are excited to announce that Playground 🛝 has been included in the Mobility Innovation Marketplace! 🎉 The Mobility Innovation Marketplace by EIT Urban Mobility is the one-stop shop for mobility innovations, providing cities with access to best-in-class solutions that are already available today to create more liveable urban spaces. 📲♻️🚲💚🚦 Discover our #citizenengagement solution to tackle two of the EIT's main challenges areas: "Inclusivity & accessibility" and "Creating public realms". Explore our solution here: https://lnkd.in/eZb_kiNC We also encourage you to explore the Marketplace and discover cutting-edge solutions, real-life implementations and expert knowledge perfectly tailored to building global smart cities! #UrbanMobility #Innovation #EITUrbanMobility #Playground #SustainableCities #FutureOfTransport #Inclusivity #Accessibility #PublicRealm

Yesterday we attended "the Unconference: Healthy and Digital City" in Rotterdam, an event part of the Upstream Festival organised by the Dutch Societal Innovation Hub. Check out the thoughts of our co-founder and CMO, Joana Traver, below! Are you going to be there today? Let's connect! 📲

🏙️ Key Factors in Community Engagement for Urban Development 🏙️ In urban development projects, effectively analyzing the input of the community is crucial for making informed and inclusive decisions that reflect the diverse needs and priorities of residents. 👨👩👧👦 To ensure that community input is leveraged to its fullest potential, urban planners and decision-makers must consider a series of key factors throughout the analysis process. 👷♀️ 🔍 Dive Into the Key Factors for Effective Analysis 🔍 Join us as we explore crucial aspects of analyzing community feedback, from balancing diverse viewpoints to understanding localized needs. 🏋♂️ Swipe through our carousel to discover strategies that make community engagement truly effective. Let’s work together to create urban spaces that everyone can be proud of! 👉 📊 Your Insights Matter 📊 We greatly value your thoughts and experiences. If you have ideas on additional factors we should consider, or suggestions to refine our analysis, please drop a comment below. Your input makes us better! A Big Thanks to Juliana Gonçalves for Your Expert Insights! 🙏 #UrbanPlanning #CommunityEngagement #SustainableDevelopment #InclusiveCities

At Playground, we're passionate about reimagining urban spaces through a gender-sensitive lens. Our founder Joana Traver recently had an enriching discussion with Nourhan Bassam, a leading voice in feminist urban design and placemaking, and the author of "The Gendered City." Key takeaways from the discussion include the urgent need for education on the importance and impact of gender-sensitive cities, the creation of urban policies that consider gender and socioeconomic disparities, and the inclusion of gender-sensitivity in all phases of the planning and evaluation process, combining different approaches to successfully implement gender-sensitive urban development - an aspect I am personally very committed to. Gender-equitable cities involves not just incorporating women's voices but also integrating an intersectional perspective that includes race, class, sexuality, and disability. Last year, the ACT Government (Australia) undertook a consultation with Canberra’s community to understand how different groups experience their public places. The collaboration between OCULUS, PLACE Lab, Communication Link and Inhabit Place (for the ACT Government) resulted in the "Gender-Sensitive Urban Development Implementation Toolkit" - a urban guideline you can check out here: https://lnkd.in/eJj_zh9U What are your thoughts on it? Do you know any other guidelines/toolkits supporting urban designers create more gender-equal cities? Let us know in the comments and join us as we strive to transform urban spaces into vibrant, inclusive environments that recognise, consider and celebrate diversity! #GenderEquality #UrbanDesign #InclusiveCities #FeministUrbanism #GenderSensitivePlanning #SafeCities #DiversityAndInclusion

How Do We Achieve Representative Participation? 🤔 Difficult question.. but we got you covered! 💡 We've worked on a summary of what we believe are the 10 key factors to ensure inclusive, effective, and representative participation in urban development projects. From transparent processes to multilingual support and collaborative decision-making, discover the best practices for meaningful community engagement. 🙏 Thanks Juliana Gonçalves for sharing your insights & feedback! We really appreciate it and encourage all of you to leave a comment if there is any we missed that you believe should be added. Or maybe one int he list you would leave out? Let us know! 📥 Download the guide to start incorporating these principles: Download Guide #CommunityParticipation #UrbanPlanning #InclusiveCities #RepresentativeParticipation

As a light Friday post, we wanted to share some wonderful architectural and urban spaces that dissolve borders, foster a sense of belonging and community, and encourage play for all ages. 😊 🔅Your place at the table by ADHOC Architects (2020) Photo - Raphaël Thibodeau 🔅Buga 05 Playground by by Rainer Schmidt Landschaftsarchitekten (2005) Photo RSL 🔅Fog ForestPark by Fujiko Nakaya (1992) Photo - Shigeo Ogawa 🔅Children's Bicentennial Park by ELEMENTAL (2012) Photo - Christobal Palma 🔅SESC Pompéia Factory by Lina Bo Bardi (1986) Photo - Leonardo Finotti 🔅Superkilen Park by Superflex & BIG (2012) Photo Daryl Mulvihill-Alamy 🔅Zaishui Art Museum by junya ishigami + associates (2023) Photo ARCH-EXIST 🔅The Canal Corridor by Townshend Landscape Architects (2017) Photo John Sturrock 💃Happy Friday all.🕺 Thanks to Dominique Hauderowicz & Kristian Ly Serena for their wonderful book Age-Inclusive Public Spaces, which helped us gather the references, and Ton van Giessen for introducing us to the amazing Claude Cormier.

Today is different ... Happy May. 🌞 With that, we wanted to highlight a few of the players in the City Tech space who are trying to make a positive difference in the natural and built environment. Have a look below! What badass startups would you add to this list? 😎 Shout out to the teams below: Struck Digital Blue Foam infrared.city Numina Google Playground 🛝

🚨The Construction of One in Three New-Build Homes Is Delayed Due to Local Resident Objections 🚨 Today we came across the research conducted by Binnenlands Bestuur* and the Nederlands Dagblad, revealing that: 🏗 One in three new-build homes in the Netherlands faces delays because of objections. 🏫 83% of municipalities have to deal with objection procedures. ⌛ In most municipalities, an objection leads to a delay of 1 to 2 years. This situation poses significant challenges but also presents opportunities for both municipalities and project initiators to reevaluate and refine their engagement strategies. The article mentions tips such as the implementation of: ⏰ Early Engagement Practices: Initiating dialogue at the beginning of the project planning process is key. 👨👩👧👦 Broader Participation Approach: Including a wide range of community voices ensures a more accepted and comprehensive planning outcome. We completely agree that a proactive, early and representative engagement process not only helps prevent delays but also builds a foundation of trust and cooperation - facilitating smoother urban development projects in the future. What other key factor would you add to the list?? *Binnenlands Bestuur insights: https://lnkd.in/eut5Z3ca

Great News!! 📢 Today we're very excited to announce the launch of our brand-new website. We've tailored our platform to focus on a significant challenge: centralizing and analyzing citizen feedback, so you can find MEANING IN YOUR DATA. Our advanced analytics model powers this solution, following participation best practices and generating actionable insights to inform decision-making. 😎 What can you expect? 🚀 Immediacy: Shift from days or weeks of post-processing workshops, surveys, and interviews to just a few hours with our team of experts. Don't waste time on manual reports, let us handle it. 🎯 Quality: Obtain design team and planning permission-ready documents and reports, crafted with reason and meaning behind each sentence. Even the quietest voices are heard. 🧩 Integration: Our team can process raw sticky notes, Excel files, and other unstructured documents to streamline your workflow. We fit seamlessly into your existing processes, like a Lego brick. 🔒 Privacy: We prioritize your security and privacy with robust measures in place to safeguard user data and ensure confidentiality throughout our services and AI use. Our team is prepared to guide and support you through every step of the participation process. So go ahed and book a DEMO call or share this with anyone looking to enhance their participation strategies with a meaningful data-driven approach. Visit us now at https://plgrnd.city/ and start making the most of your data today!