Écopoly

As part of an urban project management mission for the Alzette Belval Public Development Agency (EPA), and to facilitate public consultation, encourage participation, and engage residents, the Atelier proposed the creation of workshops centered around a game: Écopoly.

The rules of the game: each resident selects, within a given budget, the actions they would like to see implemented in order to manage their environmental, social, and economic impacts. They can adopt different levels of strategy, ranging from territorial development (renewable energy, mobility, agriculture, etc.) to the choice of highly specific measures to be applied in housing (roofs, uses, green façades, shared services, etc.).

As a true educational tool for sustainable development and urban planning, the workshops enable us to co-construct—alongside local residents and future inhabitants—the ambition and programming of upcoming projects. These are then presented to elected officials and the technical departments of local authorities, who witness the residents’ aspirations. It is a citizen-driven process for producing a project brief!

To participate in the Écopoly workshops, each player is given a budget of €20 per workshop (represented by 20 stickers), which they can use to select sustainable development actions. Each action is characterized by its economic, social, and environmental value. The first workshop offers residents the opportunity to invest in strategic development actions for the larger territory (in terms of renewable energy, mobility, agriculture, etc.). The second allows them to prioritize the features they would like to see in their homes and associated public spaces (roofs, uses, green façades, shared services, sustainable mobility options, etc.).

Outcome: Beyond its educational benefits in terms of sustainable development and urban planning, these workshops enabled us to identify priority actions to meet residents’ needs (such as considering the development of market gardening, or seeking to decontaminate the river running through the city).