ON ARCHITECTURE
— PHILOSOPHY OF
ARCHITECTURE
10th International Conference and Exhibition
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Gallery of Science and Technology
Belgrade, Serbia
Milena Ivković, KEYNOTER
Milena Ivković is a Dutch-Serbian public space designer and civic participation innovator. Milena is a Creative Director of BLOK 74, the Office for Urban Simulations and Urban Communications, based in Rotterdam.
Game-as-a-Service for Urban Design and Urban Research Communication
Abstract
How can designers, researchers, and urban policy makers leverage gaming and immersive experience to communicate their solutions in a more comprehensive, more inclusive way?
At our practice, we have frequently asked ourselves what will happen if we can transpond some of the urban gaming solutions (used to drive the dialogue in participatory urbanism process) to the scientific communication. The idea behind this new development was to use games and gamification as a method for better understanding and wider outreach of urban planning and design scientific research.
We started developing GAS! (games -as-service) approach in the middle of the Covid pandemic. The first prototypes combines elements of urban gaming, storytelling and diverse urban planning tech tools with Web 3D technology.
Concrete project where we applied this approach that tackles increasingly complex challenges of presenting research data in a comprehensive and engaging way was structuring the outputs of the Urban Research Incubator (URI) programme of ISTP / ETH Zurich.
To respond to the the URI main research question of “How can urban policy-makers leverage science and technology to create safer, more inclusive cities that serve the needs of all citizens?” we created an interactive “mini-world”, a 3D representation of the complex, interdisciplinary URI ecosystem. The 3D mini-world presents a radically flexible, interactive platform to playfully explore different stakeholder perspectives and understand key data for the future development of two research subject cities – Bogota, Colombia and Cape Town, South Africa.
Short Biography
Ir Milena Ivković MSc Arch is a Dutch-Serbian public space designer and civic participation innovator. Milena focuses on developing participative urbanism tools by using gamification and technology. Her multicultural background and international work experience as a designer – from the Netherlands and the Balkans to Africa and Asia – define her experimental and unique approach to urban planning practice.
Milena is a Creative Director of BLOK 74, the Office for Urban Simulations and Urban Communications, based in Rotterdam (NL). Since its inception, BLOK 74 has provided interactive urban planning workshops, web-based applications, digital learning tools, and planning communication formats for public space action plans, civic engagement around climate action, inclusive design research, and diverse education, training, and advocacy purposes.
She leads the Association Placemaking Western Balkans – based in Belgrade, Serbia – a non-profit organization to help create better public spaces for everyone. The Association is applying the practice of placemaking in the South East Europe region. Science 2022, Milena is a Board Member of the Placemaking Europe Foundation, based in Amsterdam.