As Urban AI becomes an integral part of city development, city games are emerging as a powerful tool to address pressing urban challenges. These interactive approaches have the potential to enhance democratic engagement, reimagine spatial design, and foster inclusivity in increasingly digitised communities. Within our sixth and final programme series of Designing Cities for All: RE-generation, we examined the impact of city games and Urban AI. We partnered up with Ekim Tan, a pioneer in city gaming, under the theme of City games in the age of Urban AI. In this article, we will summarise the three episodes, focusing on the three key themes: Urban AI & digitalisation, Urban AI & Democracy and Urban AI & Design.

Ekim Tan: Leading the way in city games

Ekim Tan is an architect from Istanbul based in Amsterdam. She obtained her doctoral degree at the Delft University of Technology with a focus on ‘ City gaming‘, a method that refers to the specific implementation of serious games to city development questions. Later she published her book, Play the City: Games Informing Urban Development (2017) to provide a deeper understanding of our values, experiences, and intellectual attitude.

In 2010, she founded Play the City, an Amsterdam and Istanbul-based city gaming practice that helps governments and market parties effectively collaborate with stakeholders. In 2016, Ekim co-founded Games for Cities, an umbrella organization of game[like] practices worldwide. Play the City leads the way in applying games to complex, multiplayer city challenges.

Episode #1: Urban AI & Digitalisation

What is the role of City Games and AI in representing the various systems and assets of the city?

The first episode of this series delved into the dynamic intersection of digitalisation, artificial intelligence, and urban games. Exploring how AI is transforming urban environments and the possible effects of AI on digitised and non-digitised communities.

We included a wide range of guest speakers from both academic and artistic backgrounds. As one of the panelists, Carissa Champlin shared some of the fundamental challenges of large-scale computational models used for problem solving in cities. Mert Akay gave us important insights from his research around data-driven urbanism and data collection methodologies as means to understand the cities. Moreover, artist and curator on new media & performance Mikala Hyldig Dal showed us examples of how artificial intelligence can be applied to collectively imagine new ways of citizenship, participation, and systematic change.

Do you want to learn more about these topics? Hubert Beroche’s Urban AI YouTube channel is a treasure trove of insights for professionals and enthusiasts alike. The channel features interviews with a diverse array of experts, including urban planners, local government officials, designers, economists, and technologists. Topics range from the role of AI in climate adaptation to its potential for enhancing citizen participation in urban governance.

Episode #2: Urban AI & Democracy

How would AI and city games address social injustices and foster possible solutions for citizens?

 

In the second episode of our series, we examined how AI and city games can transform democratic processes. We are already witnessing an increase in the participation challenges for citizens in decision making processes. This requires to question the principles that are used when building algorithmic models, and the values that are missing.

Together with our speakers we explored how with the implementation of Urban AI, new ways, and new power dynamics will be entering in decision making processes. Maarten Sukel highlighted growing impact of AI in cities, and the growing responsibility to control its operations by the governments, organisations, and big tech companies. We also hosted Myrthe Blösser, co-founder of FemData, who talked about the effects of existing biases in algorithms, and the need for more transparent, fair, and contestable data models. Finally, Tomasz Jaskiewicz brought examples from his ‘civic prototyping’ practice, which combines design prototyping and civic engagement, a methodology for increasing the involvement of citizens in technological innovation.

 

Would you like to delve deeper? In Contestable AI, Kars Alfrink addresses one of the most pressing challenges of integrating AI into urban systems: the lack of transparency and the risk of unchecked authority. Alfrink proposes that all AI systems in urban contexts must be “contestable,” meaning they should allow for public questioning, scrutiny, and modification. This is particularly important in applications like predictive policing, urban zoning, and public service allocation, where decisions can have profound social impacts.

Episode #3: Urban AI & Design

How can AI foster new agencies, amplify underrepresented voices, and shift the role of designers?

The final episode of City Games in the Age of Urban AI fellowship delved into the consequences of AI and city games in the work field of designers and how these technologies can shape the future of designers’ roles in shaping the future of our cities.

We searched for answers to this question from different perspectives. Roni Bulent Ozel, co-founder of Lucidminds AI, explained how developing different types of AI models can help us to create scenarios including entities beyond humans, such as trees, birds, etc. for different urban and social issues. To follow up, Mayra Kapteijn, social psychologist & designer, and founder of Het Verbond, shared a healthcare platform they are designing which uses AI as a tool to increase agency of users and decrease the healthcare differences of access. And Babusi Nyoni, tech entrepreneur, and CEO at Sila Health underlined the importance of considering site-specific conditions, in order to build algorithmic models for solving real, tangible problems within a context.

 

Do you want to learn more? Tan Yigitcanlar’s Urban Artificial Intelligence is a foundational text for anyone navigating the complex interface of AI and urbanism. This guidebook delves into the practical, ethical, and social dimensions of integrating AI into urban spaces. Yigitcanlar unpacks the ways AI-driven technologies—like autonomous transportation systems, urban energy grids, and digital public services—can streamline urban functionality while trying their potential to exacerbate inequalities if not designed with care.

 

This final fellowship marks the conclusion of our two-year activity and research programme, Designing Cities for All:RE-generation in which we focused on the role of design in (re)shaping and (re)creating regenerative cities by, for and with everyone and every living thing. Alongside numerous designers, researchers, experts, artists, and other partners – we invited a total of six fellows to curate parts of the programme.