Block by Block is a
charitable initiative founded as a partnership between ''
Minecraft'' developer
Mojang and the
United Nations which aims to encourage young people to get involved in
urban regeneration. The scheme uses ''Minecraft'' to allow children to rebuild and reimagine their hometowns.
The program began in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
, where ''Minecraft'' was first created, but has since expanded to many other countries. Mojang acts as the primary financial sponsor for the program. The project is part of the
UN Habitat
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme for human settlements and sustainable urban development. It was established in 1977 as an outcome of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlem ...
's Sustainable Urban Development Network.
The program follows in the footsteps of Mina Kvarter, a similar Swedish initiative that used ''Minecraft'' to modernise apartment complexes.
History
In September 2012, Mojang began the Block by Block project in cooperation with
UN Habitat
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme for human settlements and sustainable urban development. It was established in 1977 as an outcome of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlem ...
to create real-world environments in ''Minecraft''.
The project allows young people who live in those environments to participate in designing the changes they would like to see. Using ''Minecraft'', the community has helped reconstruct the areas of concern, and citizens are invited to enter the ''Minecraft'' servers and modify their own neighborhood. Carl Manneh, Mojang's managing director, called the game "the perfect tool to facilitate this process", adding "The three-year partnership will support UN-Habitat's Sustainable Urban Development Network to upgrade 300 public spaces by 2016." Mojang signed ''Minecraft'' building community, ''FyreUK'', to help render the environments into ''Minecraft''. The first pilot project began in
Kibera
Kibera (Kinubi: ''Forest'' or ''Jungle'') is a division of Nairobi Area, Kenya, and neighbourhood of the city of Nairobi, from the city centre. Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi, and the largest urban slum in Africa.http://www.dominionpa ...
, one of
Nairobi's informal settlements, and is in the planning phase. Block by Block is based on an earlier initiative started in October 2011, ''Mina Kvarter'' (My Block), which gave young people in Swedish communities a tool to visualize how they wanted to change their part of town. According to Manneh, the project was a helpful way to visualize urban planning ideas without necessarily having a training in architecture. The ideas presented by the citizens were a template for political decisions.
References
External links
*
{{Minecraft
Minecraft
United Nations Human Settlements Programme