PATH: Gamification for Participatory Urban Design

2018

Researchers:

Ignacio Cardona, Alexandra Paty, Andrew Lassiter

Institution:

Institute for Public Architecture (IPA), Summer Fellowship

Location:

Queens, New York, USA

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PATH (Participatory Architecture Towards Humanity) is a participatory design gameboard developed to bring community members, designers, and planners into a shared urban design process. Developed during the 2018 Institute for Public Architecture Summer Fellowship, it explored game techniques for negotiating cultural perspectives and translating community knowledge into spatial proposals.

The transdisciplinary strategy uses role-playing to invite stakeholders to assume others’ interests and perspectives. By shifting roles, participants move beyond their own expertise and build empathy across different actors, needs, and forms of knowledge.

Using maps, wooden blocks, acrylic rods, drawing tools, and design-action cards, participants proposed and combined interventions while making different needs spatially visible. Tested in Queens, PATH explored how gamification can transform participation from consultation into collaborative urban design.