Minecraft helps upgrade cities

The city of Le Cayes in southwestern Haiti had to be rebuilt after a great flood. But before that, residents were offered to draw what their hometown should look like in the Minecraft virtual space. At the best sketch and reconstruction was carried out. Modeling in Minecraft is part of the Block by Block project, which is led by the UN.

Within the framework of the Block by Block project, residents of each city can offer their own options for changing urban architecture. This is especially true after the devastating natural disasters in Haiti: “There was a group of fishermen who couldn’t read, write and never used a computer, but they made a plan for the main square of Le Ke,” says Pontus Westerberg, project manager from the UN . - On the plan, they added a dam to protect against waves and public toilets. The model really helped people to imagine firsthand how the square would look like after the restoration. ”

The photographs show the coastal zone of Le-Ke and the corresponding fragment on the Minecraft map.
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The UN program for the modernization of cities is designed for young people aged 14-25 years, that is, for the main audience of Minecraft. This game is played by hundreds of millions of people around the world (licenses alone sold more than 50 million), so the interface is familiar and understandable to most.

Haiti is not the only region where young people are offered to change the world around them. The UN program covers more than 300 cities in different countries. In many cities, most of the territory is in public use, and not in private ownership (for example, 60% of New York’s territory is in public use), so citizens have the right to transform the territory to their taste.


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As practice has shown, this approach is very popular among the population. Both ordinary people and professional architects take part in the design.