Pandemic play spaces: interim innovations, creative placemaking and lasting change for children in cities

Internationally, multiple cities introduced temporary solutions to provide safe opportunities for children to play during the COVID-19 crisis. This article unpacks the politics encountered by place-based actors involved in the creative reuse of urban spaces for children during the pandemic in four cities internationally. Focusing on the longer-term influence of interim solutions for urban play, findings demonstrate temporary play projects afford children to be involved in placemaking in novel and inventive ways bolstering their right to the city. However, they also show projects for urban play were vulnerable to protest and dislocation as crisis conditions abated, impacting children’s spatial justice.