Playful appropriation of space, artistic interventions in public space, and participatory cartography all open up new perspectives on the built environment (Baukultur) by challenging existing spatial conventions and enabling transformative processes. This article attempts to demonstrate this through a number of examples. Playful approaches emphasize the negotiation of individual and socially influenced ideas of space through inventive activities that reinterpret familiar places and charge them with new meanings. Artistic interventions critically confront social power structures and the use of space, while participatory cartographies create space for subjective perceptions and open up possibilities for marginalized groups to determine their own perception and visibility. Together, these approaches promote a dynamic understanding of the built environment that encourages children and young people in particular to engage critically and creatively with the space around them.