In this project, we attempt to address the two-way relationship between the child and the city through play. Our research aims to provide insight into children’s activities and to suggest events that may trigger the child’s experiential activation and education. For developing the topic, this paper has been structured in three parts: child, city, play.

The first chapter discusses how the child perceives and shapes the built environment around them. It also describes how the representation of space in toys, as presented directly or as implied by their imaginary en- vironment, affects the child's relationship to both material space and its subjects. We focus on how the child processes the stimuli it receives from space, acts and ultimately transforms its environment.

The second chapter attempts to record the child's interactions with the urban environment and the features of the established play areas - in particular, the playground and the school courtyard - in the contemporary Greek urban landscape. The operation of a typical playground and a school courtyard in Greece is standard and the elements of the material space are associated with specific activities of low complexity and flexibility. These observations are intended to provide a more in-depth study, evaluation and improvement of the perceptual stimuli that these spaces offer to children.

The third chapter presents a series of activities where children transform their environment, using play as a tool. These activities enhance free play and give it an educational character. Space now becomes a field of ed- ucation through the process of its transformation by children. Play is addressed as a bridge between the child and the city, but also as a tool to activate the public space through the experiences that take place within it.