On September 6, 2024, Typhoon Yagi swept through Haikou. While the storm caused disruptions across the city, our community-built Playground without Walls survived completely intact. How did simple materials like rope, tape, and wire withstand a Category 17 typhoon? Beyond engineering, it was the collaboration, creativity, and resilience of our team and local children that made this possible.

This article was initially framed around Playground Without Walls as a case study. It proposes a systemic structural hypothesis: if children’s physical activity and play can be reimagined as a form of public energy production—then could play itself become a basis for reconfiguring infrastructural logics, mechanisms of benefit-sharing, and even ethics of care?

In “Play Is a Right—and a Power,” I examine how playgrounds have evolved from 19th-century factories to today’s over-controlled “safety cages,” and share how PlayPower’s child-centered, modular “behavioral energy” approach turns overlooked spaces into dynamic learning ecosystems. By treating children’s actions, emotions, and imagination as tangible energy, we not only illuminate playgrounds—but also empower kids as real co-creators of their communities. Join me in rethinking