Urban Breadcrumbs : Designing a Gameful System to Encourage Playful Mobility
Rehman, Khadija (2026)
2026
Master's Programme in Architecture
Rakennetun ympäristön tiedekunta - Faculty of Built Environment
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2026-05-27
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202605125489
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202605125489
Tiivistelmä
In our current technologically mediated era, cities are navigated through efficiency, fastest commutes and optimized wayfinding, owing to technological aids that have hyper optimized our experience of moving through the urban space. Prevalent locative technologies reduce mobility in the urban environment to a functional and locative process, consequentially stripping it of its experiential dimensions.
As the divide between the physical and digital realm continues to deepen, it has become increasingly important to foster renewed emotional connection between urban dwellers and their urban environment. This connection cannot be separated from movement - when individuals move through the city, they attribute meanings to the spaces they encounter. It is precisely this meaning-making dimension that functional mobility flattens. This study proposes that the prevalent functional affordances of urban mobility can be resemantized through play. Pervasive games offer a productive medium for this transformation, converting urban spaces into narrative terrains, where mobility moves away from the singular narrative of functionality to achieve more playful and exploratory affordances.
The goal of this thesis was to shift urban mobility in a city from a pragmatic concept to a more situated one, which roots the urban environment as a space of adventure and play – ultimately ‘resemantizing’ the commonplace affordances that are provided for interpretation. It incorporated a Research-through-Design approach to create an artefact that gamified the urban environment, overlaying a narrative layer unto it.
Results showed that the game proved to be a successful tool in creating alternative interpretations for urban mobility; which yielded meaning-making, shareability, ludic spatial engagement and affective dimensions of mobility as identifiable affordances. This process also has positive implications on the urban design and planning. It provides real time data collection from the urban environment, improves mobility infrastructure and simulates interventions to guarantee maximum utilization.
The thesis ultimately lays the foundation of fun as a legitimate way to experience the urban environment.
As the divide between the physical and digital realm continues to deepen, it has become increasingly important to foster renewed emotional connection between urban dwellers and their urban environment. This connection cannot be separated from movement - when individuals move through the city, they attribute meanings to the spaces they encounter. It is precisely this meaning-making dimension that functional mobility flattens. This study proposes that the prevalent functional affordances of urban mobility can be resemantized through play. Pervasive games offer a productive medium for this transformation, converting urban spaces into narrative terrains, where mobility moves away from the singular narrative of functionality to achieve more playful and exploratory affordances.
The goal of this thesis was to shift urban mobility in a city from a pragmatic concept to a more situated one, which roots the urban environment as a space of adventure and play – ultimately ‘resemantizing’ the commonplace affordances that are provided for interpretation. It incorporated a Research-through-Design approach to create an artefact that gamified the urban environment, overlaying a narrative layer unto it.
Results showed that the game proved to be a successful tool in creating alternative interpretations for urban mobility; which yielded meaning-making, shareability, ludic spatial engagement and affective dimensions of mobility as identifiable affordances. This process also has positive implications on the urban design and planning. It provides real time data collection from the urban environment, improves mobility infrastructure and simulates interventions to guarantee maximum utilization.
The thesis ultimately lays the foundation of fun as a legitimate way to experience the urban environment.