Australia is changing and so is Newcastle with new industries, business and a growing vibrant community. But where are these people going to live? And how can we plan to accommodate them? After all they could be our grown up children, our grandchildren, or people who will bring their skills and opportunity to Newcastle. The question is ‘how do we make the choices that enable all this to happen without losing what we love about the place we live?

To address this, FASTlab worked as an R and D team with the Council of Newcastle to deliver an online exhibition to engage the public in the process. The FASTlab team designed an animation with a voice over and music, a game and soundscape. The game has defined goals where players create virtual homes, parks and other assets in the live-able environment. In this way members of the public experience having to balance all the challenges and joys of building a city one home at a time.

https://thehousewebuild.soci.org.au/

Luke O'Donnell _