Placemaking Facilitation Game

Author:

Angel bondov + Todor Kesarovski + |In|Formal

Association

Bulgaria and Norway, 2019



Purpose	Activation	Interconnection	Collaborating
	Raise Awareness	Educate	Visualize Needs
	Simulate Impact of Decisions	Decision Making	Designing

Co-Creation	Co-Analysis	Co-Design	Co-Implementation
	Co-Maintenance	Co-Monitoring


Outcome	Decision Making	Knowledge	Assessment
	Design	Inclusion	Awareness
	Partnership



Mechanics	Alternative Reality	Role Play	Rule Based Play
	Location Based	Simulations	Mapping
	Geolocation	Hypothesis	Metagame

Tech&Tools	Analoge Tangibles	AR / VR	Audio Visual
	Data AI	Data Collection/Visualization	Digital Interface
	Mobile

Aesthetics	Sensation	Imagination	Assemblage
	Physical Activity / Construction	Realism



Scale	Metropolitan	City	District
	Neighbourhood	Street	Undefined


Audience	Community	Planning Expert	Audience Stakeholders
	Policy Makers


Scope	Individual	Small Group	Small Group
	Crowd	Pre-Defined

The tool (game), presented in this application is based on an actual experience of implementing bottom-up urban transformations, relying extremely on appropriate facilitation of stakeholders and available resources. In the process of our work, we have collaborated and interacted with a lot of different types of people. In some cases these collaborations have brought successful contributions and in others additional challenges. This motivated us to work towards the development of tool / game that can help us optimize the process and focus on the social part of the urban (re)development. That’s why we initially defined 10 archetypes, characterizing specifically diverse types of people we interacted with during our work. In addition, we also elaborated on actual challenges and situations that we personally faced within our practice. These two decks of cards – Persona cards and Case cards - are the building blocks of our gamification concept, called ‘Placemaking Facilitation Game’. Without seeking for deep academic validity of the method, we have effectively applied the tool in the planning stages of actual placemaking and urban renewal initiatives which we have facilitated for the last two years. The results of utilising the game were pre-dominantly encouraging in regards to the incorporation of different actors' perspectives, despite their role in the process as member of the local administration, design professionals, NGOs or activists.

The tool is based on a gamefication principle to promote a co-creative setting for different actors to contribute. The major strength of the tool is on the topics of community engagement and interests management but it also represents a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. The game has been applied in two major directions:

1) as an educational and evaluation means through workshops regarding (hypothetical/realised) projects and cases;

2) as an operational means for different stakeholders, helping them to find an easy way to coordinate their ideas / challenges related to the place they inhabit / work with.

Based on our experience with the game, we are currently exploring the possibilities for ‘Placemaking Facilitation Game’ to scale up to different domains, not only related to urban planning. That ambition is based on the fact that the archetypes, defined for placemaking purpose, are often met in other life situations. That’s why we see this tool as an original and innovative way to attract people’s attention to various domains, while simultaneously giving them practical knowledge to solve real problems.

To sum up, the idea behind the tool is to empower various stakeholders, involved in urban (re)development processes, to be able to see the process from different point of view. This has the capacity to broaden the mind-set horizon of these stakeholders and might improve the way cities are (re)developed nowadays.