As pressure on cities grows, what will it take to make them inclusive, resilient, and sustainable?
These questions will be explored as part of a new Barcelona-Melbourne 2050 webinar series, co-organised by the Pla Estratègic Metropolità de Barcelona (PEMB), RMIT Europe and the UPF-BR Chair for Metropolitan Futures, a collaboration between Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona Regional.
The series reflects the strong parallels between Barcelona and Melbourne, both metropolitan regions responding to complex challenges around liveability, participation and sustainability, and contributes to Barcelona Metropolitan Vision 2050.
Moderated by PEMB's General Coordinator Oriol Estela, the first session Participatory Urban Innovation featured Director of the future play lab Associate Professor Troy Innocent, whose work explores how urban play and participatory design can help communities imagine and test alternative urban futures.
Associate Professor Innocent said urban play can move beyond traditional engagement methods such as surveys and town halls, which can reproduce the same voices and limit participation.
"Place-based world-building methods use the city as a living lab for regenerative futures and planetary civics, inviting participation and play in shaping neighbourhoods," he said.
"Urban play provides this toolkit for open, playful experimentation,"
"These experiences create hope, possibility and agency."
Drawing on projects developed in Melbourne, Associate Professor Innocent showed how speculative and place-based experiences can help communities engage with climate resilience, mobility, democratic participation and social cohesion.
The discussion also highlighted the importance of integrating Indigenous and place-based knowledge into urban futures thinking.
The series will conclude with a report gathering lessons and insights from the webinars to support future metropolitan planning processes, including the Barcelona Metropolitan Vision 2050.
This is the first of four webinars, with further insights set to be published through discussions on Melbourne's 2050 strategy, multi-stakeholder collaboration in urban regeneration and innovation districts.
Explore the webinar's full recording on RMIT Europe's YouTube.
Associate Professor Troy Innocent led the urban play experience Reworlding Barcelona in Poblenou, Barcelona in October 2025. 
