In the paper, the phenomenon of the urban game is presented in the context of its applicability to architectural education. In the perception of the average inhabitant, the town is only a background for daily activities, and architecture is designed to secure his basic needs. The recent crisis in spatial interactions, analogous to the crisis in social interactions, can be overcome through skilful use of non-standard methods of activating inhabitants – fun and games

Świt-Jankowska, Barbara

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355
BARBARA ŚWIT-JANKOWSKA*
thE gamE in spacE  
– THE PHENOMENON OF AN URBAN GAME1
zabawa w przEstrzEni  
– FENOMEN GRY MIEJSKIEJ
a b s t r a c t
in the paper, the phenomenon of the urban game is presented in the context of its applicability 
to architectural education. in the perception of the average inhabitant, the town is only a back-
ground for daily activities, and architecture is designed to secure his basic needs. the recent 
crisis in spatial interactions, analogous to the crisis in social interactions, can be overcome 
through skilful use of non-standard methods of activating inhabitants – fun and games.
Keywords: architectural education, urban game, space
s t r e s z c z e n i e
W artykule przedstawiono zjawisko gier miejskich w kontekście możliwości wykorzystania 
jego potencjału jako narzędzia edukacji architektonicznej. W wyobrażeniu statystycznego 
mieszkańca miasto jest jedynie tłem dla codziennej aktywności, zaś architektura ma za zada-
nie zabezpieczyć jego podstawowe potrzeby. Współczesny kryzys interakcji przestrzennych, 
w analogi do kryzysu interakcji społecznych, można przezwyciężyć poprzez umiejętne wyko-
rzystywanie niestandardowych metod aktywizacji mieszkańców – zabaw i gier. 
Słowa kluczowe: edukacja architektoniczna, gra miejska, przestrzeń
1 Research funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in 2014 and 2015 within the 
framework of the research project titled: “The architectural education of the youngest” realized at 
the Faculty of architecture of poznan university of technology, in the institute of architecture, 
urbanism and the heritage preservation, in the Division of history of architecture and urbanism.
* Ph.D. Barbara Świt-Jankowska, Division of History of Architecture and Urbanism, Institute of 
architecture, urbanism and the heritage preservation, Faculty of architecture, poznan university of 
technology.
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The city is ‘the place’, it is the way of being in the space
which allows the articulation of our feelings and sensations towards the space 
 [5, p. 19]
1. Time and space
the inescapable intersection of time and space is a distinctive trait in the history of western 
civilization. The initially hierarchical layout of places that was specific to the Middle Ages, be-
gan to gain an open, infinite form in the 17th century (thanks to Galileo’s discoveries). Time has 
become an important parameter of a space – now regarded as a point in time [3]. Contemporary 
human lives in simultaneous times, in the era of the juxtaposition of contrary things, close and 
distant, concentrated and distributed. growing globalization results in a recognition that the 
recent world seems to be a net of intersecting directions, where the essence of time and place 
are relativized through developing media, internet, and modern communication.
the space of the contemporary city is non-continuous, crisscrossed. thanks to the fast 
public and private transportation the local nature of a space has been lost and personal ex-
perience of distance is distorted. On the one hand it is dominated by architecture: the life of 
the ordinary man is revolves around built-up neighbourhoods, among the streets and squares. 
moreover, the pursuit to maximize the use of available space impairs the sense of human 
scale. buildings are balanced by greenery ordered and trimmed only to a small degree, sub-
ordinated to the demands of the urban tissue, or arranged more freely, but closed in municipal 
parks. On the other hand – architecture very often becomes something completely obvious 
to the inhabitants, even to the limit of being imperceptible, not worthy of their attention and 
sacrifice of their valuable time.
The citizens of the modern metropolis move between points suspended in space (home, 
work, school/preschool, recreation) nearly unconsciously, depriving themselves of the pleas-
ure of communing with the place, articulating their feelings and experiencing the surround-
ing area. as a result, they lose the ability to correctly interpret the complex relationships 
between the individual elements of the city. 
in the words of michael wroblewski, one of the problems that currently bother sociolo-
gists the most is the crisis in social interactions – meaning activities that arise from “ori-
entation on other people” and “are an answer to their behaviour and actions” [7, p. 289]. 
Paraphrasing the above definition, in contemporary architecture we can find a crisis in spatial 
interactions (the relationship between the space and its users) – meaning the actions of peo-
ple’s orientation on the surrounding space and their answer to its impact.
2. The game in space. The crisis diagnosed
the aforementioned lack of understanding of the rules governing any given space leads to 
a disequilibrium in the position of architects and urban planners in modern society. Projects 
concentrated on improving the condition of public spaces in cities often meet with indiffer-
ence or, in extreme cases, with hostility from the stakeholders. regulations aiming at the 
achievement of a harmonious image of the city are perceived as an attack on the freedom 
of citizens. the immediate environment is treated by the locals with disregard. common 
357
in society is the lack of consent to create a platform for discourse, polemics, or creative 
criticism of the proposed solutions. in return, there is a belief that “these matters” should 
be taken care of by someone else. social participation and the adoption of democratic ac-
countability for the public space is associated with active contribution, practice and personal 
experience of it. This is similar to working on the interpretation of a difficult literary text or 
an allegorical painting by the Dutch masters. It requires commitment, raising awareness, and 
dedicating time to the analysis of individual fragments and the relationships between them. 
understanding comes later, but then often accompanied by delight and euphoria.
the aforementioned michal wroblewski sees an opportunity to overcome the crisis in 
social interactions in post-modern play [7, p. 296]. Post-modernity, the successor to mo-
dernity, is not merely its critique. It reworks the characteristic values in the search for a new 
quality and solutions that will prove to be effective in a postmodern society. To paraphrase 
again – we can search for the cure for the lack of spatial interaction in the modern city in 
the concept of playing and having fun. using the phenomenon of the urban game (location-
based game), has recently come into its renaissance. 
What is an urban game? What does its growing popularity imply?
as we can read on popular internet forums, the urban game is a new form leisure activity, 
popular in many cities around the world. its sources can be found in a combination of actions 
such as flash mob, street happenings, role-playing computer games (RPG) or tactical role-
playing games (TRPG) as well as in scout chases2. the basic principle in the organization of 
the game is the use of urban space as an element of the game. the city then becomes a giant 
game board on which the players – like pieces – move from one point to another, playing 
pre-determined roles and performing tasks prepared by the organizers. initiatives are charac-
terized by a huge variety. They can be divided into:
 – the topic: the story – issues related to universal history, events important to the local 
community (historical or contemporary), fiction (stories based on legends, criminal 
riddles, characters and literary threads, stories invented by the organizers, science 
fiction, historical fiction) or, the lack of the story.
 – the envisaged objective: educational, integration, casual fun, celebration of holidays, 
interactive sightseeing.
 – the manner of organization: grassroots, organized by urban game and street hap-
penings enthusiasts, or commercial events planned at the request of individuals or 
businesses, for specific events (for example: a bachelorette party, corporate events).
the connecting element of these activities is always the urban space. Depending on the 
subject and the degree of dissemination of the game (typically the Internet is used for this pur-
pose) the number of participants that takes part in the competition varies from a few to sev-
eral hundred players. currently, similar activities are held in almost every major polish city. 
the most important name related to the organization of urban games in poland is krzysztof 
bielecki, creator of the project Urban Playground (2005), which instantly gained enormous 
popularity and triggered an avalanche of similar initiatives across the country, for example 
those of Szymon Dabrowski (Poznań). In Poznan, another initiative was established – the 
tourist game, based on the idea of an urban game – an independent action allowing interactive 
sightseeing of the city space.
2 According to http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gra_miejska [access: 10.06.2015].
358
Referring to the definition, every game has a double face: “the child, while playing, on 
the one hand learns generalization and abstraction, on the other hand control of their own 
actions in relation to the formulated principles” [7, p. 292] On the one hand, it has a strictly 
mapped set of rules, where features such as prediction and calculation matter (it is important 
to achieve the intended purpose of the game, which is winning), on the other hand every 
game is a reflection of disinterested social interactions3, which are characterized by free-
dom and loosening of rules. understood in this way, the action becomes a useful educational 
tool through which the child (or adult) learn to live in society.
Similarly – through an urban game – players not only realize the goals of the organizers 
but also, indirectly, learn about life in the space of the city, rediscovering its merits and flaws. 
a suitably prepared game in this case becomes an important source of information on the 
city, its architecture and urban planning. participants voluntarily engage in an analysis of the 
plans of the city, expanding their knowledge of its history, familiarizing themselves with the 
changes that have taken place in the space, and experiencing and assessing the given reality. 
it can be assumed that the effectiveness of such actions is much greater than normal “guided 
walks”. importantly, the theme of the game seems not to be crucial in advancing spatial apti-
tudes – activities related to the history of architecture can help, but are not necessary. A group 
participating in an interesting gameplay of any story is likely to remember more significant 
details regarding the architecture and urban design of the city, than a similar group on a sight-
seeing tour of the same area in a traditional way. In addition, the sporting rivalry intensifies 
the need for taking new challenges. a demonstration of this is provided by the numerous 
comments appearing online on forums related to particular games and still increasing attend-
ance in subsequent editions.
3. The phenomenon of an urban game
The phenomenon of the urban game raises the question of the creative use of spatial val-
ues of the city. Referring to the specificity of architectural and urban design, the designer’s 
work also resembles, to a certain extent, the game located in the space of his mind – a three-
dimensional jigsaw puzzle in which each element must find its place and fill the role it has to 
play. a particular juxtaposition of “building blocks” is accompanied by both predetermined 
rules and a certain amount of freedom. as a result of the creative activities, a vivid space 
should be constructed, following the flexible needs of users, harmonious and balanced.
Urban game design allows for translation of abstract (at least for most users) concepts 
into concrete actions in the tissue of the city. it enables players to look at their own city 
from a new, previously unknown perspective and provides an opportunity to understand the 
multi-faceted processes in its space. As Johan Huizinga wrote – a game is an action that “runs 
within certain limits of time, space and meaning”, “in a visible order, according to voluntarily 
accepted rules, outside the sphere of material usefulness or necessity” [4, p. 189–190]. The 
atmosphere of playfulness, on the one hand leads to a feeling of unreality, but on the other it 
allows for the introduction of children’s elation, laughter, and delight during its experience.
3 in contrast to the interested interactions – based on emotional, business or economic reasons, which 
are characterized by rationality and the desire for maximum efficiency.
r e f e r e n c e s
[1] Bauman Z., Ponowoczesność, [in:] B. Szlachta (ed.), Słownik społeczny, wyd. wam, 
Kraków 2004.
[2] Bielecki K., Miasto to gra, Drukarnia Pijarów w Krakowie, Warszawa 2008.
[3] Foucault M., Inne przestrzenie, w: Teksty Drugie, 2005, nr 6 (96).
[4] Huizinga J., Homo ludens. Zabawa jako źródło kultury, wydawnictwo czytelnik, 
Warszawa 1985.
[5] Nowakowska O., Wszystko gra! Gry miejskie w przestrzeni Warszawy, homo ludens 
1/(3) (2011), (online), homepage: file:///D:/2013-12-09/6_BIBLIO_pdf
[6] Sławek T., Akro/nekro/polis: wyobrażenia miejskiej przestrzeni, w: A. Zeidler-
Janiszewska (ed.), Pisanie miasta – czytanie miasta, Poznań 1997.
[7] Wróblewski M., Gra jako model społeczny. O potrzebie grania w społe-
czeństwie ponowoczesnym, Homo Ludens 1 (2009), (online), homepage: 
file:///D:/2013-12-09/6_BIBLIO_pdf


The game in space – the phenomenon of an urban game

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The game in space – the phenomenon of an urban game

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