The Designing Cities for All (DCFA) program is a fellowship organized by Amsterdam’s Pakhuis de Zwijger. For the September–December 2024 term, Dr. Ekim Tan, founder of Play the City and director of Games for Cities, contributed her expertise under the theme “City Games in the Age of Urban AI.” The series focused on exploring the evolving role of city games as a tool for engagement, democracy, and design in an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.

The series aimed to advance research by design, emphasizing the critical need for participatory methods to achieve meaningful societal impact. It tackled questions about how Urban AI is reshaping city practices and how city games can strengthen democratic practices, inspire innovative spatial design and support inclusivity and connection in digitized urban communities. Dr. Tan structured the program around a three-part debate series:

Digitalization and Urban AI – Investigating the intersection of AI technologies and urban transformation.

Democracy and Urban AI – Exploring how AI can support or challenge democratic participation.

Design and Urban AI – Highlighting the role of games and AI in co-creating sustainable and beautiful urban futures.

Fellowship Output

As part of the fellowship, Dr. Tan authored an article summarizing her findings and insights. Leveraging Notebook LM, the article was transformed into an accessible AI-generated podcast, making the content more engaging and easier to consume.

Watch the Debate Series

Catch up on the thought-provoking discussions by accessing video recordings of the three debates through the links below:

Digitalization and Urban AI: 

https://dezwijger.nl/programma/urban-ai-digitalisation

Democracy and Urban AI: https://dezwijger.nl/programma/urban-ai-democracy

Design and Urban AI:

https://dezwijger.nl/programma/urban-ai-design

This program demonstrated the transformative potential of integrating city games and AI to design inclusive, resilient, and future-proof cities.