The Future City is a new project initiated by the British Council and developed with the help of UK partners and partners here in Norway. The main component of the project is a type of board game.
The idea of the game is to focus on issues that will effect our cities and communities in the future whilst at the same time encourage leadership skills, citizenship and working with democratic processes.
It can be used to focus on specific urban spaces or to be used to focus on issues that might be challenging local communities like the lack of involvement in the electoral process.
The game is constructed so as to be played over 2.5 days (we are however developing a 1 day version). The first day is a visioning day where 4 groups of 4-5 players discuss their city as it is today, look at their hopes for the future and learn through a facilitator some of the issues that they might not have considered. They will learn how global issues have real impact on their local environment.
The players consider 4 policy areas which are Environment, Financial, Cultural and Social and through a number of exercises begin to construct a view of their future city prioritising those policy issues that they consider to be the most important. From here the teams discuss innovative ideas that might reflect or solve some of the issues. For example they may decide to deal with the challenge of integration through a culture policy by building a community centre or they might want to deal with the challenge of integration through a financial policy that would get people into work.
It is important that the group understand the impact of their choices and how sometimes as a policy maker you have to trade off some policies against others. i.e. a heavy financial focus may have environmental implications etc.
Day 2 is the testing day when the players test their model of their ideal future city policies against a current physical space that needs developing or against an issue that is challenging a local community.
This cements imagined policy against the reality. On day 2 the players will take photographs, interview locals, research and bring back information to be discussed and tested against their model.
Players also get the chance to speak with ‘experts’ from diverse disciplines such as city planning, architecture, social policy, finance etc to also test their ideas.
On the 3rd day the players will try and bring their hopes and ambitions for their city together with the realities and talk about how they will solve these challenges with their model. At the end all the groups playing will present their best ideas to each other. Each player then votes on their favourite ideas and a winning team is then found. However there are no real winners or losers as all the ideas are then handed to policy makers and city planners who have pledged to use them in real rejuvenation projects.
The game will be played over the next year in areas across Groruddalen so as to draw on the expertise of local people when it comes to the development of their own area.
Over the next few years the game is to be played in countries across the world so creating a global view of how people experience their local environment and to chart their aspirations for the future of their cities. Through the web it is hoped that players will be able to share good ideas directly with other players across the planet, a discussion that will hopefully lead to new and innovative solutions locally.
Partners here in Norway:
•Groruddalssatsingen
•Norsk Form
•IMDi
•Stovner Bydel
Partners in the UK
•Centre for Local Economic Strategies
•URBIS
British Council
For more information about the project please contact Ted Matthews (ted.matthews@britishcouncil.no) Tel: 22 39 61 96
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