Participatory Design Game for urban slum upgrading in the Context of Addis Ababa

The research explores serious games as a participatory design methodology for upgrading slum neighborhoods and integrating user-generated spatial configurations for low-rise incremental developments in the context of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Below, games (serious) will be defined in relation to participation, where the significance of participation in architectural design will be discussed, followed by a brief introduction of the contextual setting.

Games have served as tools for research, design, teaching, and learning processes; the development of the games can be intended to serve a singular or a multimodal purpose. Clark C. Abt (1970) defined games as “Reduced to its formal essence, a game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in the same limiting context”. Here, several important aspects of games are mentioned; games involve multi-players engaged in decision-making towards meeting an objective in a given context. This research is focused on the potential of serious games involving the participation of endusers to meet a design objective by integrating user-generated spatial configurations in slum upgrading strategies in the context of Addis Ababa’s neighborhoods, here on referred to as ‘sefers’.

Lerner (2014) noted the ability of games to induce participation and collaborative design decision-making. Collaborative design games have been used as tools for engaging meaningful participation of multiple stakeholders, including users and designers, through defined game rules and game pieces. John Turner (1976) argued the importance of participation in-dwelling design, saying: “When dwellers control the major decisions and are free to make their contribution to the design, construction or management of their housing, both the process and the environment produced stimulate individual and social well-being. When people have no control over, nor responsibility for key decisions in the housing process, on the other hand, dwelling environments may instead become a barrier to personal fulfilment and a burden on the economy”.

The significance of participation translates into the context of Addis Ababa, as the rapid urbanization of the city poses documented threat to existing socio-economic relations, social security, and income generation means for low-income dwellers of the city. These low-income characteristically slum neighborhoods not only serve for dwelling purposes but incorporate multi-dimensional social and economic interdependences within the community. The characteristical slum neighborhoods are enclaves where small-scale production and trade occur(Gameren & Mota, 2020). The residing community is netted with social networks and financial associations. As the number of the city’s residents continues to increase combined with the city’s rapid urbanisation, these multi-purpose enclaves face the challenge of being replaced by dense urban forms. As

part of the solution, Addis Ababa’s city administration has proposed standardized affordable housing solutions that often require low-income households to relocate and adapt to generic spatial configurations rather than

developing housing solutions that are responsive to the livelihood of the existing community. The research focuses on developing a meta-game for co-designing courtyard-based communal dwellings using pre-defined modules representing spatial volumes that end-users can use to layout their preferred spatial configuration following a set of game rules that determine the validity of the user-generated design. The meta-game can simulate how to upgrade existing kebele compound houses or propose low-rise incremental communal dwelling units as slum upgrading strategies. The game allows end-users to participate in the design decision-making

process. The context will dictate the game elements, rules, and play process. The game and the play process will be demonstrated by using a test case. The outcome will be evaluated and presented followed

by findings and recommendations for further studies and application.