Ikigai

We sense a palpable lack of thoughtful consideration and innovation in the spaces we inhabit. Too often, there is an immense disconnect between the aspirations of inhabitants and the realities of these spaces (cities, towns etc.). These spaces effect every aspect of human existence from healthcare, education to overall well-being of inhabitants. In this paper, we introduce a novel gamified experience called IkigaiLand, that allows users to reconstruct existent localities to better reflect their expectations and aspirations while equipping them with tangible information about planning and infrastructure in their own surroundings. It also allows relevant authorities to better understand the collective needs of citizens/residents of the area and prospectively utilize their generated solutions. Special consideration has been made to make the solution accessible, inclusive and democratized to incorporate diversity in opinion and participation. The game employs the use of tokenised entities such as buildings and an Augmented Reality(AR) application all encapsulated within gamified interactions to allow users to visualise and quantify the resilience and effectiveness of their constructed cities. We envisage this gamified experience as a tool for collective dreaming that allows communities to better articulate and facilitate innovation in the space of urban planning.