Parents and teachers around the world have long known what is becoming more and more widespread knowledge among planners, urban designers and decision makers: Minecraft is a powerful, attractive – even alluring – tool when used on in-game life-like versions of the real world.
With more than 100 million Minecraft users world-wide, you are likely to attract already enthusiastic children and young people, if you decide to use Minecraft as a tool for user participation in urban planning. And even if you want to involve citizens in places, where computer games (or even computers) are not commonly used, it is in fact possible to conduct successful public participation across age, gender and other differences – through Minecraft.
Research shows that there are only good reasons to involve youth in the planning and design of their own physical environment. Given the possibility and the right tool, they show to be engaged and very creative in their design and visualizations.
Read more about that in the book “Using Minecraft for Youth Participation in Urban Design and Governance” recently published by UN-Habitat, and learn how Minecraft is used to engage especially younger citizens in the design of public spaces around the world. The book is written by Pontus Westerberg and Fanny von Heland, and can be downloaded from UN Habitat here.
In the conclusion Westerberg and von Heland say:
“Minecraft provides a platform to explore the merit of different design alternatives and visualize ideas, potentially resulting in better design and ownership by the local community and users during the final implementation.”
Copenhagen in Minecraft. An example of how GeoBoxers turn different kinds of geospatial data into Minecraft to form a basis well suited for citizen participation in urban planning and city design.
