Build to Last: An Interactive Game for Resilient Housing

People are living in areas that are more frequently prone to multiple hazards. Hazards disproportionately impact low-income households in the Global South, who often design and construct their houses without the assistance of trained construction professionals. Low-income households are largely self-reliant or reliant on their direct surroundings. In the construction process, households have to make many choices. Can the house withstand a hurricane or earthquake? Does everyone in my household have a place to sleep? Are the right construction materials available? Do I know how to build? Can I afford it? Does the design account for future climate uncertainty? Do I have a safe piece of land?

We wish to achieve a game that has the potential to effectively support design decisions in practice. Communication about complex design decisions is most effective when there is exchange of knowledge, particularly between experts and dwellers. So, instead of making a manual, poster, video of flyer, let’s make a game to support their design process! The tool should help in a playful simple way to make design choices. Given high illiteracy rates in low-income communities, the tool should be visual and intuitive with limited text.

As input for your game, you will need to learn which construction practices and designs are best suited for different types of hazards. Map out the different choices that households need to make in the design process. Try to define when a house is successful to satisfy the needs of the households at risk. What is good enough- what level of robustness should the house have and for what time horizon? Study digital tools that support disaster resilience of houses, such as 3D simulations or online design guidance. You are encouraged to draw inspiration from existing games, which can offer useful resources and guidance in game design methodology.

Target Users:

The target users are low-income households in the Global South, illiterate and with limited access to digital tools, electricity and internet.

You will work with a group of researchers from the Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation with experience in developing games and working in the Global South on the reconstruction of houses after disasters in informal settlements or without construction professionals involved. Plan meetings with our team members and pick their brains. We have several games that you can use as an example. Explore the games we already have and other games to start your design thinking process.

Research approach

We suggest the following steps:

1. Study literature on decision-making in the construction process of low-income households in hazard prone areas.
2. Study and evaluate theories about effective serious games for construction methods and/or spatial plans. Interview researchers with extensive experience in the development of games for the built environment and/or hazard risks.
3. Interview humanitarian and governmental actors as well as local construction workers about their professional experience in supporting households with their construction and analyze their suggestions. 
4. Try out as many relevant games you can find and identify elements for an engaging, effective serious games.  
5. Design your own game and try it out with different groups, such as students, researchers or citizens. Engage with the Red Cross Climate Centre to test the design of your game with your target group. Gather input on the experience of participants and redesign the game. 
6. Think about a way to assess behaviour and decisions made in the game. For example, what are favoured construction choices for a certain hazard. Why are they (not) chosen? What patterns and trends of choices can be found?