HeriCraft: Digital block-building games as models for sustainable heritage management [abstract]

Abstract

The protection and maintenance of built heritage has been sustained by a process of values integration in communities' cognition. European frameworks for heritage policies such as Faro Convention (2005) and Historic Urban Landscape (2011) defended the indispensable need for people-centred approaches in heritage sustainability. Emerging social phenomena of the last two decades such as videogames can take a fundamental role in the processes of cognitive integration of values, especially for younger generations. Serious games as social models can be harnessed to (re)order heritage management plans, in which players use resources of/in a specific context to engage in actions shaped by goals, rules, behaviors, and representations. Blockbuilding games have been gaining momentum as tools for youth engagement in architectural and urban (re)design through symbolic (re)constructions and demolitions. Games such as Minecraft and Roblox, have been applied in youth participation processes due to its popularity, user-friendliness, and easy pixelated 3D visualisation, accompanied with a variety of materials, plugins and modifications.