Haiti's Les Cayes waterfront as replicated in Minecraft. (Credit: United Nations Human Settlements Programme) For the most part, video games are simply another form of entertainment like movies, television and books; rarely will a video game serve a purpose other than to provide a leisurely pastime. But Minecraft is breaking that mold. The critically acclaimed video game is now democratizing the planning and design of run-down public spaces around the world. Minecraft is an open-ended game that allows players to construct anything they can imagine using textured cubes as their building material. Mojang, the game’s creators, partnered with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)in 2012 to kickstart the “Block by Block” initiative, which encourages people to reimagine their communities by designing plans using the Minecraft platform.
Urban public spaces, such as the Place de la Paix in Les Cayes, Haiti, are accurately recreated in blocky 3-D form in the ...
