Challenge 3: Conceptualizing Regenerative Thinking & Systems at Urban Scale
Making the Cities of the Future NET POSITIVE
At Urbanators, our goal is to make regeneration the default for new development and renovation projects through educating decision makers, and by arming them with concrete actions they can implement through a gamified collaborative learning experience. Our mission is to leave a net positive effect on our surroundings, embrace diversity and account for inclusivity.
Problem Space
In a world where our environment is changing at a rapid pace, with implications all around, which becomes more evident year to year, with Iran currently reaching 52ºC. Denmark experiencing the longest draught in recent years and the temperature in the oceans being the warmest ever recorded, we need to act yesterday.
Very few projects help regenerate the local surroundings, not only from a carbon footprint standpoint, but also by contributing to other aspects such as local water management, biodiversity, the community etc.
This is where regeneration should take effect. Thinking about cities holistically and discussing regeneration is not a new topic, the novelty comes when its about taking the steps and taking action. Regeneration must go beyond discussions, workshops, and summits. There are many great tools and assessment kits that have been developed by world leading researchers, NGO’s, and consultancies but most of them fail at one critical aspect; they simply theorise and discuss.
Our Solution
To tackle this problem, we at Urbanators, have created Regenopolis.
A tabletop game that helps the player breathe new life into a post-industrial city and shape it into a regenerative paradise. Bringing together colleagues, partners, friends or family members to navigate through shifting events and develop the city’s resilience.
Regenopolis provides a realistic immersive board game experience using various game elements such as Event, Building, Action, and Mission Cards. Players start by transforming a randomly assigned district of a city, complete with its initial structures.
The key objective is to amass the highest holistic regeneration score by securing points in six crucial areas: Biodiversity, Community, Economy, Air Quality and Water Quality. The action cards are based on existing regenerative projects so that the players have to smartly upgrade their city-districts infrastructure and gradually make it more regenerative.
The game begins with each player allocated a scoreboard depicting a district and its respective buildings. Players draw mission cards which they need to solve, based on real stakeholder goals. They then choose action cards, and receive an initial amount of resources to kickstart the game.
The gameplay unfolds round by round, with each turn presenting opportunities to enhance the players buildings and district. Upon every build, all players update their scoreboards. Each turn culminates with an event card drawn, forcing players to collaboratively address the city’s pressing issue in the event. All players must pass an event in order for the game to continue. The player with the highest overall scoreboard at the end, wins!
Regenopolis also underscores the importance of resource management. Every building requires certain resources like Water, Energy, and Waste that you can purchase from the inner city district. However, the inner-city district’s limited resources add a challenging dimension.
The game also emphasizes spatial planning as each district offers a specific amount of space for horizontal and vertical construction. In order to tackle the events in the best possible way, it is not enough to think of specific solutions, you need to think comprehensively and in collaboration.
The game is also designed to be used as a workshop tool wherein the cards can be used independently of the board game. The cards also come with an instructions manual on how to facilitate discussion and change. This way, the cards can be taken into industry meetings to discuss ideas and action plans. The game’s instruction manual can be found at the bottom of the page.
Overall, Regenopolis is not just a game; it brings real-world solutions to the real-world challenges of urban regeneration. At Regenopolis, success is through attaining value in all the key regenerative categories while ensuring all districts are at a net positive. As players navigate the gameplay, they sub-consciously learn about the crucial aspects of holistic planning and regenerative development.
Market Strategy
Our immersive educational experience helps change makers who want to improve their urban design approach by simplifying and facilitating discussion and inspiring a different approach to regeneration. This game offers a unique gamified learning experience about regeneration where the user will be able to change their thinking strategy and gain real world concrete examples by doing so. It offers a unique selling point as the current market tools for facilitating discussion lack the ability to show how to act holistically and regeneratively. This solution offers a physical board game, a set of cards, and a boundary object manual to use the cards independently of the game.
The primary target audience for Regenopolis is consultants in the built environment. The reason behind this is that, if the people developing the solutions of the future do not know how to tackle the complexity of regeneration, then how should we expect them to convey that to their customers. Other audiences that could benefit from Regenepolis include industry partners, NGO’s, educational institutions and city governments. To inspire and incite change overall , people should not only think about regeneration but also start to consider how can we be regenerative.
The game’s real-world implications make it a perfect tool for these professionals to gain a deeper understanding of regenerative projects in a hands-on, interactive manner. Furthermore, Regenopolis can serve as a tool for team-building exercises and brainstorming sessions within their respective organisations.
Regenopolis is also uniquely positioned in the educational gaming market as it provides not only a fun and competitive tabletop experience but also serves as an innovative tool for exploring and understanding the complexities of urban regeneration. The game will be marketed as a fusion of entertainment and education, emphasising the knowledge players can gain about regenerative projects and sustainable planning.
The game will be produced using a sustainable print company that can print all the different objects. To turn this game into a viable business, the board game and cards will come at a fixed cost with an additional option of a dynamically priced personalized experiences and workshops. There will be a focus on maintaining a direct line to the customers to get real time feedback and adjust accordingly. To measure whether our solution is a successful at changing ones outlook, surveys and workshops will be conducted to further comprehend the likelihood a consultant or person is willing to change their perspective and approach.
Future Work
For the future, a lot of testing and iterations will take place to ensure the alignment with organisations that advocate for a net positive effect on our environment. Potential partners would include consultancies, sustainability NGOs, educational institutions, and even city governments that share the same vision and are looking to promote regenerative practices. The map to success includes game testing and redesigning repeatedly to ensure an efficient, effective, and realistic game.
Meet Us
The team behind Urbanators consists of three master studentes from the Technical University of Denmark, with a passion for complexity, socio-technical systems, design and the green transition. We are a diverse team with different backgrounds and cultures looking to combine our talents to inspire change.
Feel free to reach out.
