PPS URBAN BOARD GAME presented in the Barcelona's "Park(ing) Day"
The Park(ing) Day Barcelona is an event organized by ISGlobal (ISGLOBAL – Barcelona Institute for Global Health), Espai Ambiental Cooperativa (Espai Ambiental) in collaboration with the Municipality of Barcelona that aims at transforming, for one day, public parking spots into parks, gardens, and other kinds of public spaces with the aim of vindicating that another kind of city is possible: greener, with less cars, and people oriented.
IAAC, the member of the PPS consortium based in Barcelona, participated in the event, presenting a new project developed in the framework of the Public Play Space Project: PPS Urban Board Game!
PARK(ing) DAY
On Friday 18th September 2020 IAAC participated in the Park(ing) day event occupying a public parking slot in the city of Barcelona and engaging several citizens in participatory process with the aim of building and designing together the urban public space, while discussing the topics of circular economy, resilience, carbon neutrality, green mobility, health, food, and more.
The game dealt with the important topic of Public Space in a moment of radical transformation of the city. Faced with the new needs generated by the pandemic, the city of Barcelona had taken the decision to free up space, previously occupied for mobility by car and for parking, and dedicate it to pedestrian use. New pedestrian routes were created in “Eixample” streets that were previously dedicated to vehicular traffic.
The game questioned the model of inhabitation that should be promoted for this novel public space. In fact, the pandemic demonstrated the need to imagine models of dynamic, adaptable and responsive public space over time, capable of adapting to different functions and wishes requested by citizens, towards the definition of a more inclusive public space open to communities that inhabit it. The PPS Urban Board Game presented itself as a new Arena for every citizen to be involved in the process of re-signification of the public space.
More info at the Parking Day Website.
PPS URBAN BOARD GAME
The PPS Urban Board Game is a digitally fabricated game board that can be deployed in the Public Space of the city.
The Game enables participatory design processes of the public space, through playful interaction and advanced digital technologies. Following a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) logic, the PPS Urban Board Game is open source and can be adapted to other cities. In fact, it is downloadable, editable and ready to be reproduced in every Fab Lab in the world!
The board represents a sample neighborhood of Barcelona, with its streets, its blocks and its public spaces. Buildings are manufactured in recyclable plywood using Digital Fabrication tools, reproducing different typological elements of Barcelona’s built environment, including multi-level contemporary constructions and smaller buildings creating the characteristic human-scaled environment of Barcelona’s public space.
Following a simple set of rules, the player can develop a proposal for the design of the public space, using different “cards”, which represent functions belonging to different categories: Health (physical and mental) and Safety, Resilience, Energy and Carbon Neutrality, Food, Circular Economy, Mobility.
Each player counts on an available budget of 50 points, which can be invested in the purchase of different modules for the city’s public space. Each module has a value of 2, 3, 4 or 5 points, and belongs to one of six categories.
A camera-tracker collects information on each proposal, generating knowledge about the wishes of the citizens. Moreover, the act of playing in the public space fosters interaction between citizens, creating awareness about the multiplicity and diversity of opinions, desires and needs of the composite communities of the city.
