Participatory Design Game for Urban Slum Upgrading in the context of Addis Ababa

Participatory Design Game for Urban Slum Upgrading in the context of Addis Ababa

Bekele, Beza (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)

Nourian, Pirouz (mentor)
van Gameren, D.E. (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Building Technology

2021-07-05

The project uses a tangible and visual method for eliciting the shareholder’s spatial needs using a game-based approach. The design game resembles a board game in conjunction with Lego and functions on a more abstract level in relation to the built environment. The game is intended for use in a collaborative design that allows end users to collectively configure their space based on their spatial requirements and priorities which otherwise may not be met by standard conventional design in the top-down approach. The development of the design game abstracts the working spatial and social qualities of slum settlements within Ababa’s inner city (specifically kebele compound houses) and embeds them into a system of configurational elements and rules for configuring a low-rise courtyard-based incremental housing. This system of design flows a modular co-ordination system based upon a tartan grid. The end users use the game elements (boards, modules, activity cards & tokens) to configure their space based on the defined game rules. In the game play process, the stakeholders (players) will identify and weigh different domestic and commercial spaces, functions and sizes based upon their priority to form their configuration of hierarchic spatial framework and shared spaces. The method of developing the game can be replicated to create design games for different contexts. The game serves as a simulation of a design problem that facilitates trade-offs, design ideation, projection of stakeholder needs, preferences, and co-creation. At the basic level, the game can be used to collect information about end-user preferences regarding spatial configuration, the use of tokens creates a trade-off where players have to prioritize their immediate spatial needs. At a higher level, the game can be used in a bottom-up planning strategy for ideating new housing solutions and upgrading existing ones.

Participation
Design game
Addis Ababa
Slum redevelopment
Meta game

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5c3183c8-8782-4d02-a7b7-144ef648e101

Student theses

master thesis

© 2021 Beza Bekele