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Department of Spatial Planning
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DAZWISCHEN - "Rebuild Revier" school project uses Minecraft to design urban development concepts in the Rhenish mining area

Students group of the comprehensive school Merzenich-Niederzier
Students group of the Burgaugymnasium Düren

As part of the project "Youth designs structural change" of the zdi center ANTalive e.V., the project "DAZWISCHEN - Future-Oriented Structural Change in The Rhenish Mining Area", the Revierknoten Raum and the Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier initiated the student project "Rebuild Revier".

Together with students from the two participating schools, the Burgau Gymnasium Düren and the comprehensive school Merzenich / Niederzier, forward-looking and innovative design concepts are being developed at the sites Düren-Merken and Morschenich (alt). Over the past few months, the students have gained insights into structural change and the development process of urban design concepts. With the support of the research teams, the students have conducted their own on-site surveys and created urban planning concepts. The exciting ideas are currently being transferred into spatial concepts and then modelled in 3D using Minecraft.

The results will thus be recreated in a way that can be experienced and will then be "walked through" in a short video. The project offers the youth of the region a unique opportunity to actively participate in the discussion of the design of their homes and to develop and communicate their own visions for future developments.

The project is led by the team of experts with Benjamin Casper - Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier, Nicole Maurer - Revierknoten Raum and Andreas Klozoris - Projekt DAZWISCHEN (RWTH Aachen University), as well as teachers Dr. Anja Septinus, Britta Schnee and Dietmar Reschke. The transfer into Minecraft and the management of the gamification approach is done by Mr. Josef Bogatzki (The JoCraft). Active support is provided by the students Karim Knobloch and Thilo Loose, who accompany the process of the students with their expertise.