Eszter Tóth
Why develop games for
participatory planning? Since the 1970s the game concept has been used in the
planning practice, in the form of role games (Simpolis, C. Abt, 1970), urban
games (The Big Urban Game, Design Institute of the University of Minnesota, 2003),
digital games (B3, HafenCity University Hamburg and Florida Atlantic
University) or even board games (Stadtspieler, Netzwerk Agens e.V., 2009). Games
provide playful and engaging environments and thus they can motivate and
encourage the players with different backgrounds, particularly under-represented
social groups, such as children and adolescents. I am especially interested in
the question whether cooperative games are appropriate tools to raise the
interest and motivation of children and youth in participatory processes and if
they can foster learning about the built environment. By developing the game Pop-up
Pest presented in this article, I was looking for an answer to this question.
Pop-up Pest has been
developed as a part of a PhD research at the HafenCity University Hamburg
(supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alenka Poplin) and supported by kultúrAktív
Association. Designing the game, our primarily aim was to implement a
cooperative game for children and youth, that promotes active engagement in
urban planning and facilitates learning about the living environment, as well
as contemporary urban phenomena and concepts. The aim of the game is to make
Budapest more liveable by means of small interventions, which are suggested
changes in the game environment: the game Pop-up Pest consists of a 25 m² large
playing area where players can move and change its appearance by placing
building blocks on the playground. It represents the 6th and 7th districts of
downtown Budapest. Main traffic routes and nodes, green spaces and cultural
institutions are marked on the playground. Building blocks symbolizes urban
interventions, like contributing in a community garden, placing bicycle stands,
creating public art works, etc. Information cards regulate the players’
activities and contain short informative explications and descriptions of related
examples on interventions in the chosen districts.
Besides the transfer
of knowledge, the game design supports the development of skills and
competences regarding the use and the co-creation of urban space. These skills
include communication skills, social and civic competences including cooperativeness
and empathy towards others, and all forms of interpersonal competences and
behaviours that enable to participate constructively and effectively in social
and spatial issues. Thus, we implemented the concept of cooperate learning in
the gameplay which fosters collaboration among the players and reduces the
importance of competitiveness among them. Players are divided into three groups
of four, which are striving to enhance urban traffic, to establish more green
spaces in the city and to initiate a variety of cultural activities. Every
player has an individual mission that has to be fulfilled on order to achieve
the common group aim and succeed in the game.
The pilot-version of
the Pop-up Pest game was presented and tested in September 2012 at two open air
festivals (with a total of 167 players), as well as two school classes and a
group of university students. In summary, after the evaluation we can say that
the players liked the format of the game, they got interested in the content (however,
for different age groups different content units were relevant: while for younger
children the interventions themselves seemed to be interesting, adolescents and
young adults preferred to read the information cards) and they especially liked
to work in a team. However, the possibilities for cooperation were limited and
the intensity of collaboration between players changed from team to team. Based
on the results of the evaluation we are going to develop the game further starting
in autumn 2013. Pupils from local secondary schools are going to be involved in
the development process, as well as in the game testings. The game will be
played in primary and secondary schools (7th to 11th grade) in Pécs, Hungary.
The writer is an
engaged activist in built environment education and a PhD student in urban
studies at the HafenCity University in Hamburg, Currently she is doing research
on the field of children’s participation in urban planning.
The project was
funded by the Hungarian Ministry of National Resources, the National Institute
for Family and Social Affairs, and the Kunsthalle Budapest.
Suomenkielinen
tiivistelmä
Pelejä on 1970-luvulta
saakka kehitetty osallistumisen avuksi kaupunkisuunnitteluun. Eszter Tóthin
tutkimuksessa on suunniteltu osallistumista edistävä lautapeli Pop-up Pest,
jonka avulla pyritään selvittämään, ovatko pelit hyviä välineitä herättämään
lasten ja nuorten kiinnostus ja motivaatio osallistumista kohtaan sekä
opettamaan uutta rakennetusta ympäristöstä. Pelilauta esittää osaa
Budapestin kaupungista, ja laudalla joukkueet pyrkivät edistämään heille
asetettuja tavoitteita, kuten liikenteen parantamista tai viheralueiden
lisäämistä. Pelin kehittäminen jatkuu testauksessa havaittujen kehityskohteiden
pohjalta syksyllä 2013.