ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a collaborative transcript of an interview with Associate Professor Steven Mankouche from the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. In March 2019 Kimia Erfani, Marta Brković Dodig, and Linda Groat interviewed Professor Mankouche, and discussed his experience of designing and implementing two games: The initial project – ‘The Farm: Gaming Strategies for Empowering Marginalized Youth’ – used co-design games for cultivating speculative proposals in an architectural design project carried out through Prof. Mankouche’s architecture practice called ‘Archolab’. In the second example, games were developed as pedagogical and co-design instruments within the context of two architecture design studios at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning: ‘Playing Hamtramck’ and ‘Playing Highland Park. Students designed gaming strategies to engage locals in the design of urban spaces of cities of Hamtramck and Highland, and developed design interventions based on local communities’ ambitions, ideas, and wishes.
The chapter unfolds the manifestation of games as co-design tools and pedagogical instruments that can be utilized for social empowerment of communities. Co-design games can be used as compelling design methodologies that can inspire novel insights for the designers by stimulating dialogue and constructive social engagement with communities.
This conversation provided an opportunity for structured reflections on the lessons learned, as well as extended conversations thereafter during the preparation of this chapter.
