Architects, planners, designers and geographers from around the Netherlands and beyond attended Geodesign Summit Europe at TU Delft and in Rotterdam on November 1-2, 2016. Now in its fourth edition, this year’s gathering focused on intercontinental projects and environmentalism.
Delen
As humanity faces major concerns like global climate change and overpopulation, modern methods of collaboration and communication within urban design could help offset potential catastrophes while improving the overall quality of life for people around the world. The summit included lectures by industry leaders including Cees Pons, the Manager of Port Planning for the Port of Rotterdam and PlaceWorks principal David Early. Dr. Arjan van Timmeren from TU Delft’s Department of Urbanism was also on hand to discuss new approaches to research within the urban domain.
Along with lectures and panel discussions, the summit also turned the spotlight on an unusual tool currently being used to introduce children and others to urban planning: Minecraft. Bruno Amaral de Andrade, a researcher from the Vienna University of Technology, helped lead a panel about a project in Brazil that involved kids creating modifications to a simulated town within the popular world-building game. During a pre-conference workshop, VU Amsterdam’s Dr. Eduardo Dias addressed Minecraft’s impact on other budding designers elsewhere around the planet.
One 2015 project helped children in Australia come up with ideas while using Minecraft to improve parks located around Adelaide. Dr. Dias also discussed GeoCraftNL, a virtual collaboration he’s worked on for the geo-ICT consulting firm Geodan. The still ongoing project seeks to replicate the entire Netherlands within a Minecraft server and features intricate recreations of Dutch landmarks like Dam Square, the Binnenhof and Efteling all built brick by brick. Dr. Dias and others think that the game could continue to serve as an engaging outreach and educational tool to encourage youngsters and others to pursue careers in urban design. It can also teach vital skills for other careers as well.
“Within GeoCraftNL the users have set up governments with mayors, politicians and elections,” Dr. Dias said. “If someone does something bad, they even punish each other with time outs. Some of them are very motivated and spend many hours in there every night.”
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