Building Futures game launched

The Building Futures game helps people share their aspirations for their community and gives participants a realistic insight into the planning and development process.

Imagine the scenario for your town: an ambitious town-centre retail proposal, set out compellingly by both architect and developer and backed by both council and development agency. The scheme is sure to impact on the town's future, so community support is essential. How do you balance the interests of stakeholders to reach a consensus?

That is exactly the kind of scenario that the Building Futures game sets out to address. The game - developed by CABE with Building Futures, the Royal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA) think tank and architecture practice AOC - aims to help people share their aspirations for communities.

It was launched in January at a real-life game-playing event in Daventry, Northamptonshire - using an actual proposed retail scheme for the town.

A game of planning and development

The game offers an accessible new approach to tackling planning and development. It helps participants work through their worries and aspirations for their community, and shows them the trade-offs and choices they have to make to achieve a great place to live. The process allows participants to follow through the stages of planning and development with their scenarios in a realistic way, abiding by certain rules and time limits within a structured framework.

The game has been created to be as true to life as possible, and also features a series of 'unexpected event' cards, which pose challenges to the decision-making process.

The launch saw the game played as part of the community engagement strategy for Daventry. It encouraged healthy and passionate discussion that showed how people wanted their community to develop. By helping them think how they would achieve their goals, the different stakeholders found a remarkable amount of common ground and agreement on how Daventry should move forward.

Elanor Warwick, joint head of research and futures at CABE, said:

"This is a great way for communities to engage with their own futures. It helps them decide whether they want libraries, art galleries or more housing, and how they can achieve that."

Get your copy of the Building Futures game

The game can be played straight out of the box with no expertise needed, but a training session on 1 April 2008 at the RIBA will show how the game works in practice, and how people can benefit from its use.

For more information, or for a copy of the game, contact Callum Lee on clee@cabe.org.uk or 020 7070 6708.