Mönchengladbach's playground relaunch: children design the future with!

Mönchengladbach's playground relaunch: children design the future with!

The city of Mönchengladbach plans to redesign the playgrounds on Bökelstraße and Broicher Straße. The reason for these changes is the broad -based citizens' participations, which started in March 2023. At this first initiative, children and adolescents were able to actively contribute their ideas, which led to over 22 proposals presented to the city. One of the most common wishes included a cable car, a trampoline, a bar, a climbing frame, a mini -play house and a nest swing. These proposals were included in a first draft that is now being checked for its feasibility.

The next opportunity for participation will take place soon. On Tuesday, April 22nd, interested citizens are invited to express their ideas and wishes between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on the playground on Bökelstrasse. The following Thursday, April 24, a similar event will take place at the same time at the playground on Broicher Straße, at the Broich School bus stop. In addition, there is the possibility to submit suggestions online via the website www.stadt.mg/deinspielplaz by April 26th. It is expected that this is the last participation before political decision -making about the final draft.

meaning of citizen participation

Citizen participation plays a central role in the active participation of the urban living space. This initiative shows that digital and analogous living environments are increasingly interwoven. Mönchengladbach therefore works on an online platform for citizen participation, which should enable to combine digital and analog formats. This platform has already been tested with the prototype to make the challenges of the Smart City more understandable.

A participation compass was developed to create transparency and to promote the quality of the citizen participation. Mönchengladbach uses the Open Source Software Consul in cooperation with democracy.Today for this platform. Accompanying workshops have identified various participation formats, which are then to be made available centrally. This platform is given part of the administration and with the necessary personnel resources.

future prospects and innovative approaches

The challenge lies in mobilizing a broad social class for the participation formats. Gamification could play a key role here. This method, which integrates the game elements into normally non-playful contexts, has the potential to increase citizen participation. Studies show that gamification could increase the participation rate for urban planning projects by up to 30 %.

Successful examples from other cities, such as Helsinki, demonstrate the effectiveness of app-controlled citizen participations. These platforms not only motivate to participate, but also promote a better understanding of urban development projects. An inclusion of gamification elements can thus help to increase the engagement rate and trust of the citizens in the city administration.

The city of Mönchengladbach plans to use these innovative approaches in order to better involve different population groups. A user -centered design and continuous feedback should be steadily improved. In the future, it is therefore not only the redesign of the playgrounds on the agenda, but also the sustainable and more inclusive design of the urban space.