GAME THAT CITY

Gaming the City

This workshop explores how urban spaces can be gamified to become interactive, playable environments, where narrative, game mechanics, and design converge to transform cities into immersive experiences. Participants will work in teams to develop game narratives and gameplay structures, then translate these into spatial interventions that redefine how urban spaces are experienced. The workshop emphasizes storytelling, gamification, and AI-assisted visualization, encouraging participants to approach city spaces as dynamic platforms for interaction, play, and experimentation. For this edition, the focus is on Alexanderplatz in Berlin, where teams will design multi-level game narratives, imagining how each level transforms the square according to gameplay logic and narrative progression. Participants will produce a Gameplay Logic Poster and stop-motion teaser video, combining conceptual, procedural, and visual outputs into a cohesive representation of their game world. This workshop offers participants a unique opportunity to explore the emerging trend of architects designing interactive, playable spaces inspired by game worlds, where spatial principles from architecture are translated into immersive, gamified environments. It also engages with the trend of AI-assisted visualization in design, enabling rapid experimentation, cinematic storytelling, and spatial prototyping. By integrating these approaches, participants will develop skills in creative spatial thinking, narrative-based design, and collaborative problem-solving, while reimagining how cities can be experienced as interactive, playful environments. By the end of the workshop, participants will have conceptualized, visualized, and communicated complex urban narratives, producing exhibition-ready outputs that showcase the transformative potential of AI-enhanced, game-inspired urban design.