Locus Ludens. Architettura e spazio urbano come luoghi di gioco

The 1560 painting Children’s Games by Peter Bruegel stages the playing experience in the urban space. The wide unpaved square, delimited by medieval Flemish architecture, is a place that the community uses regardless of its original purpose, as it happens nowadays in any city worldwide. For example, in Naples, any decayed urban space or architecture can be interpreted by residents as a playground. Starting from a 1938 essay by Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens, which also influenced artist Constant Nieuwenhuys’s work, this paper aims to analyze the tool of playing to rewrite the meaning of public spa