Rezone the game: playing for urban transformation - 都市モデルでシミュレーションゲーム
This is an essay I recently wrote for The Bosch Architecture Initiative (BAI) and Digital Workplace (DW) about Rezone, an applied urban game they developed to address the issue of vacancy in the city of Den Bosch.
In the near future we start a collaboration with them in a project about urban gaming and vacant buildings. More about this project soon here on this blog.
Dutch version of the article (pdf 95 kb)
English version (pdf 90 kb)Introduction
How do you tackle a pressing and complex urban issue like vacancy of buildings and underused land? Especially in times of economic decline it is hard to reach solutions through conventional means. Traditional parties involved in urban development are not inclined to invest and instead wait for others to make the first step. The Bosch Architecture Initiative (BAI) and Digital Workplace (DW), two cultural organizations from the city of Den Bosch in the Netherlands, came up with an innovative intervention: Rezone, an urban game that challenges players to ‘fight blight’. At first it may seem strange to tackle a serious and actual problem by means of a game. After all, playing games appears to have little to do with the work of urban professionals. How then can a game like Rezone contribute to involve stakeholders in developing their city? We shall see below how Rezone offers unsuspected potential to address urban issues.
(via http://www.bijt.org/wordpress/2013/04/24/rezone-the-game-playing-for-urban-transformation/)