Play the city workshop: Imagine Europe
A participatory urban planning workshop through play
LARSH is taking part in the Brussels Summer Assembly 2023, with a participatory urban planning workshop through play : Play the City, Imagine Europe. The Summer Assembly takes place every year at the beginning of summer. Its aim is to stimulate debate around a more democratic, socially inclusive and sustainable city of Brussels, one that can meet the major contemporary challenges of transition and change.
During the Summer Assembly, players from civil society, culture, the arts and science are invited around participatory conferences, seminars and workshops.
This year, Julian Alvarez and Irene Sartoretti of the LARSH laboratory are running a workshop project together with the socio-cultural association Arts & Publics, specializing in cultural mediation, insertion and citizen animation and with Brussels Academy/Brussels Study Institute, the knowledge-sharing platform for Brussels, which organizes workshops, seminars, debates and conferences by mobilizing civil society players and researchers.
The Play the city, Imagine Europe workshop is aimed at young people aged between 16 and 25. For 5 days, participants are challenged to imagine, plan and shape the European capital of their dreams, using the urban design game Minecraft. First, participants explore the Place du Luxembourg, where the European Parliament is located, and its surroundings, with the help of urban planners, researchers and players involved in neighborhood life. They reflect on the functions, symbolic aspects and practices of the space. Then, based on this analysis, they work in small groups on their project. The final day of the workshop is dedicated to a public presentation of the project and reflective feedback on the experience of urban creation through play.
Through this activity, participants are encouraged to think critically and collaborate with each other. Whether it's iconic buildings, public spaces or infrastructure, young people are invited to explore ideas of both city and society through a fun and stimulating experience, at the crossroads of play and urban planning.
Photos Summer Assembly Bruxelles 2023
