Platzdeplay was initiated by PRJT, an art collective set up by CSM BA Architecture: Spaces and Objects graduates Aline Caretti, Riccardo Ciriani and Khedidija Benniche, to bring together young people and artists as part of a collaborative process in order to create urban interventions in public spaces focused on the nature of play.
This international project featured three groups of twelve young people from London, Saint-Erme in France and Stuttgart Germany and operated like a circular game of consequences where each team created a package that describes a space special to them and sent them to each other for the next team to come up with a concept. For the final stage each team travelled to the third city to implement the second team’s ideas.
The aim of the project was to open up the traditional construction of public space by enabling an open dialogue between young citizens, artists and local authorities in the creation of these three urban interventions. By providing a platform that invites young people to lead a small scale urban planning project, it enables them to better understand the roles that they can play in their neighbourhoods and in turn opens the vision that each community has of the role of young people in shaping the city.
In London the project was supported by CSM’s widening participation team and featured twelve students from neighbouring Acland Burghley School in Camden. The pro-active role of the teenagers and cross-border engagement gave scope for genuine exploration and meant the methodology was constantly evolving in what proved to be an exciting learning exchange for all participants.