Research
The global ‘Minecraft phenomenon’ has generated academic research across many disciplines, ranging from architecture and urbanism, to literature and economics. We have led and participated in several research projects which use Minecraft as both a research tool and as a topic of study. Papers will be available to download when ready and published.
Democracy and Urban Design
Minecraft as a public participation tool
An academic study assessing Minecraft’s potential for engaging young people in urban design and creating a more democratic consultation process. This study evaluates the value of Minecraft against other digital tools, and examines how and why Minecraft has been used so successfully in this area.
Chronotopic Cartographies
Mapping literary spaces in Minecraft
This academic project, 'Chronotopic Cartographies', a collaboration of institutions, led by the University of Lancaster, is based upon Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin's idea of the 'chronotope'; how configurations of time and space are represented in language and literature.
Other works
In addition to our participation in the research projects above, our work has been cited in several academic papers and journals.
Unreal Urbanisms | A User Guide To Engagement Gaming For Community Planning by Teimtope Olujobi. Olujobi, Temitope, "Unreal Urbanisms | A User Guide To Engagement Gaming For Community Planning" (2016).
Worldbuilding: a survey of games and architecture at play by Charlotte M. McKernan. McKernan, Charlotte M.. "Worldbuilding: a survey of games and architecture at play." (2017).
Immersive Realities: An expansion pack for landscape architecture by Allisson Ong. Ong, Allison. "Immersive Realities: An Expansion Pack for Landscape Architecture." (2018).
A Future Framework: Virtual Reality as an Architectural Instrument by James Holth.
Holth, James, “A Future Framework: Virtual Reality as an Architectural Instrument.” (2017).
Further Study
Here are some of our favourite people and sources for video games & architecture content which is not exclusively Minecraft-based.
You + Pea : Videogame Urbanism
An exploratory research studio at the Bartlett School of Architecture.
Heterotopias
A project focusing on the spaces and architecture of virtual worlds.
The Continuous City by Gareth Damian Martin
A photographic journey exploring virtual cities of video games.
Konstantinos Dimopoulos
Game Urbanist & Designer.