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Playing Estate Urban Game

Format Alternative Pedagogy Games Mapping

City Lublin, Poland

LSM mass-housing estates, Lublin – Playing Estate Urban Game is an active learning tool geared at children and youth communities. Kids become the 'Indiana Jones' of their own surroundings. Equipped with a map of their neighbourhood and a set of instructions provided by an animator, they are tasked to find all of the indicated spots on the map, and perform the hidden missions at each of them. The sites included in the game are easily recognizable, the participants pass by them on an everyday basis, yet they are usually not accessible to children, or even to the general public at all. Think of libraries and archives, construction sites, abandoned buildings, or government institutions. The game opens up these places to young inhabitants. After finishing the tasks within the set amount of time, all participants make their way back to the end point, and share their experiences with each other.
active inhabitants Children city tour Collaboration Community Cultural Heritage district Identity Lublin urban safari
Context Album Steps Contact

Playing Estate Urban Game came about as a closing format for the project ‘Tenants: Narratives around cooperative utopias’ (2014) that was implemented in housing cooperative estates that were designed in the 1960s and ‘70s in Warsaw (Przyczółek Grochowski) and Lublin (LSM, the Juliusz Słowacki settlement) by famous Polish architects Zofia and Oskar Hansen. Even though these estates have collaborative living in their DNA, their utopian character waned over time. The project revised the original intentions and assumptions of social housing together with modern architects, and engaged inhabitants of these estates in reviewing the utopian visions of the designers and confronting current needs and challenges in the neighbourhood. The game activates young citizens to become researchers of their own environment, and uses their curiosity to ask the questions that matter.

Research made by the local youths: We collected local stories, talked about events important for both housing cooperatives, as well as local rituals, usage of the common spaces: greenary, alleys, squares, service points, educational facilities. We were curious of subjective reception of the functioning of the settlements as places-for-people, the space of housing and meetings, as a reality that surrounds us and shapes our everyday routines.
How did we get from seperate workshops dedicated to diverse audiences to joint format? We have established criteria, according which the final events were created: We prefered: - activities oriented onto promoting and strengthening the potential of residents using their abilities and predispositions, including those who are considered as perypherial audiences, - activities that fully fit into the estate infrastructure and its social and cultural dimensions //contexts; - events and actions that are easy to reproduce or re-initiate by residents or existing institutions (clubs, libraries etc.); - activities involving residents from various age groups. Each activity was consulted or worked out together with the residents.
Participants starting the game had to "imprison" the sounds of the estate on a mobile phone, and after passing all the game points, find the amphitheater and "free" them with the help of animators and artists. In the space of the amphitheater, the youngest participants learned how to construct their own instruments from recycled materials, they mastered the basics of creating sound works inspired by the place where they were created, and finally they played a joint final concert. After that, the artist rebuilt the sounds remixed by the artist, which were previously downloaded from all those willing to take part in the action. In this way, the amphitheater again became a place where the residents spend time together and co-create cultural events.
Among the tasks were visiting oldschool photo studio called "Foto Zorza" and taking retro style familly or class-mates photo with a prospect on the back
sharing familly recipies in front of the last remaining emploee milk bar at the market
to the grande finale of a concert of self made instruments from upcycled trash together with electronic ambient music, freeing in-prisoned sounds of the estate

People Power KIDS AS CO-CREATORS

Get together a group of active inhabitants and representatives of different age groups, and establish intergenerational collaborations. Involve high school students, neighbours and other volunteers in the preparation and production of the game. Map the estate together, and identify interesting sites, such as hidden or closed-off spaces, small businesses, local celebrities, and so on.

Location LET’S GO OUTSIDE!

Organize a workshop for young participants to prepare them for interviewing local business owners, interesting individuals and passers-by about the spots marked on the map. Go out into the neighbourhood and really listen to their observations; what do the children notice and find important in their surroundings? Collect as much information as possible; this will fuel the tasks for the game.

Official / Legal ASK FOR PERMISSION

Talk to small business owners, directors of institutions and owners of construction sites or abandoned buildings; in other words, the people who are in charge of the spaces you want to include in the game. Ask them if it would be possible to make the space accessible for the duration of the game and if they would be willing to host the participating children as they perform a task. Discuss what the possibilities are. If they do not allow you access to the site, be creative and think of different ways to still include it in the game.

Production PREP THE GAME

Select ten to fifteen locations to host site-specific interventions. Ask their hosts or owners to be main actors during the game. Plan activities with them that involve their personal stories. Remember, the game balances on the edge between local reality and creative fiction! Create the map indicating all of the selected spots. Make sure that all tasks are clear and well-prepared on site. If possible, do a test-run to see if everything works.

Communication SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER

Combine the launch of the game with a local celebration or activity, for instance the end of the school year. It can be helpful to latch onto existing infrastructures and events in order to reach participants. Alternatively, position yourself at a spot that is frequented by (parents with) children, such as a playground or the entrance of a market, and invite kids to play the game. Potentially, you can combine the game with a different activity taking place at the start or end point of the game, like a workshop.

LSM estates continously provokes discussions between architects and art historians. Some of them seem to forget that the housing estate is not just an architecture or an urban plan. The dozen of interesting forms of blocks are inhabited by several thousands of (no less interesting!) people. In our opinion, residents are the true practitioners of the Open Form theory in housing, and our task is to strengthen their perspectives.

Open Territory Foundation