Play Accessible Communities

Re-imagining micromobility hubs as inclusive and healthy public spaces

Research-driven and action-oriented, the PAC Playbook documents an integrated approach to micromobility hub design. It demonstrates how cities can combine technical accessibility data, social and climate data and a game-based collaborative design process to move from analysis to strategy and from co-design to implementation. ‘Play Accessible Communities -PAC reimagines micromobility hubs as inclusive and healthy public spaces. The project is led by Play the City (Amsterdam-Istanbul), İzmir Planlama Ajansı, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality’s Transport Department, and Transform Transport (Milan) within EIT Urban Mobility Co-Create New European Bauhaus (NEB) programme. More than 100 participants reimagined Üçkuyular Micromobility Hub in İzmir during the PAC Mobility Game sessions in September 2025: school children, youth, newcomers, experts, NGOs, local government teams, and mobility service providers came together across three sessions. Together, they shaped a collective vision for transforming the area through the lens of active mobility, this is structured into short-, mid-, and long-term implementation phases.

In conversation with: Willem-Frederik Metzelaar Regional Director West at EIT Urban Mobility Duygu Avci Researcher at Izmir Planning Agency Giullia Ceccarelli Senior Researcher at Transform Transport

About the speakers

Trained in organisation sociology, Willem-Frederik Metzelaar first started his career in the Energy Utility industry restructuring these companies. Involved in the strategy and M&A activities of the largest utility in the Netherlands at that time (1990-2000), he was also responsible for an energy saving and sustainable mobility grant program with an annual turnover of €45Mio. Within a period of 10 years he was on the board of directors of one of the Energy Utilities as Chief Commercial Officer. After that he founded several data driven companies, before entering EIT Digital. There he learned much about the vast EU tech landscape and the European Union as a whole. And found out about the most challenging transition we globally face: the Sustainable Mobility Transition. Therefore, when asked, there was no doubt that he would like to contribute to this mission via EIT Urban Mobility. Currently, as a regional director serving in UK, IRE, NL, BE and LUX. As EIT Urban Mobility is present in 33 European countries, with 5 regional offices and one HQ in Barcelona.

Ekim Tan is an architect from Istanbul based in Amsterdam. She obtained her doctoral degree at the Delft University of Technology with a focus on ‘ City gaming ‘, a method that refers to the specific implementation of serious games to city development questions. Later she published her book, Play the City: Games Informing Urban Development (2017) to provide a deeper understanding of our values, experiences, and intellectual attitude. In 2010, she founded Play the City , an Amsterdam and Istanbul-based city gaming practice that helps governments and market parties effectively collaborate with stakeholders. Ekim has also co-founded Games for Cities , an umbrella organization of game[like] practices worldwide. Play the City leads the way in applying games to complex, multiplayer city challenges.

Duygu Avcı is a senior researcher at the İzmir Planning Agency, a subsidiary of the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality. She holds a PhD in Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research focuses on environmental justice movements, sustainable and just agro-food systems, and urban political ecology. At the İzmir Planning Agency, she conducts research on urban sustainability, contributes to local-level policy development, and coordinates the implementation of projects on the ground. Beyond her institutional role, she engages in environmental and food justice through knowledge production, writing, and volunteering.

Giulia Ceccarelli is a geomatics engineer with a background in architectural planning. Since 2022, she has worked as a researcher at Transform Transport. Her research focuses on location-based data analytics and spatial information modelling, with a particular interest in sustainable and inclusive cities.