The Urban Living Lab Playground Game

The second prototype of the Urban Living Lab Playground Game was tested at two events over the summer period: The Nature of Cities Summit held in June and the OpenLivingLab Days in the beginning of September.

Through the game, participants learn how an Urban Living Lab functions and how it can bring city stakeholders together to fight a given climate challenge. The gamified approach aids creative thinking and helps challenge solvers to look at the problem from a different perspective / with a fresh set of eyes. By bringing together a diverse mix of participants, the game helps to break down barriers of communication through a storytelling approach.

By playing the game the participants learn:

• What an ULL is and how it functions in a simulated real-life environment;
• How a city can employ an ULL to connect with the quadruple helix stakeholders, including citizens;
• A wide range of co-creation tools and methods that can be used to work together with the citizens;
• How co-creation works when addressing complex urban challenges and developing NBS and PCS;
• How the gamified approach can facilitate shared understanding and storytelling.

For the time being, the game is played in a semi-structured workshop setting where a table facilitator is needed. For upcoming prototypes, we aim to make the game as user-friendly as possible, not requiring any prior knowledge or facilitation skills. The game was publicly showcased for the first time at the Nature of Cities Summit. After each workshop, participants are asked to express what they liked about the game and what they suggest could be improved. Through this co-creative approach, we aim to develop a user-friendly, educational game which will help people understand the Living Labs and nature-based solutions concepts better.

Play the game at the following event:

European Week of Regions and Cities │ 9 October 2019 │ 11:30 - 13:00 │ Brussels, Belgium