The Regeneration Game

The Regeneration Game is a simple toolkit designed to stimulate new ideas around town planning by introducing creativity and chance to urban design. I co-developed this with Dominic Rose, under the banner of Transit Collective. 

In the game we argue our current system of planning and design has too often led to drab and unimaginative developments within our towns and cities. Regeneration projects frequently fail to meet the needs of the population they intend to serve. This game aims to inspire a more imaginative, democratic and inclusive process for urban renewal, taking the design out of the hands of planners and giving an opportunity for all people to develop an alternative urban landscape. The Regeneration Game is a creative way for players of any age and experience to engage with local history and to explore their own personal vision for the built environment.

The Regeneration game was first developed as one of the public workshop elements of our project, Margate Reiminagined for the Margate Festival 2019. Since then we were selected to deliver a Folkestone edition as part of the Folkestone Triennial in 2021, and held a re-run of the Margate edition at the Margate School in 2023.

To give you an idea of how this works, here’s the story to the image above. First the narrative is decided by the role of a dice;

[🎲 roles 6] The Leas Lift is redeveloped after … [🎲 roles 4] suffering structural problems. The decision is made to turn the site into … [🎲 roles 3] council offices for the new East Kent Unitary Authority plus … [🎲 roles 6] public toilets to satisfy a section 106 agreement from the outgoing district council.

Then the player decides how this is manifested; a large office tower is erected on the Leas to be visible from the French coast. The funicular railway is refurbished and turned into consultation rooms for councillor’s surgeries, with the cars colour coded by party affiliation. Plush new public toilets are provided at the base of the cliff to celebrate the new council’s commitment to public service.