Seminar SoSe 2026
Saba Barani, Prof. Dr. Anke Hagemann

Playful Inclusion
From Co-Learning to Claiming Urban Futures

There is an urgent need to facilitate the agency of different groups of citizens from diverse backgrounds to negotiate their demands and claim their spaces within the hegemonic architectural and urban development systems in the city. In our co-learning research group Playful Inclusion, we create environments to address these needs. Our approach is grounded in a critical spatial perspective and uses playful, collaborative methods to help citizens exercise their agency.

In Playful Inclusion I, through games, we facilitated a co-investigation of spaces within a refugee camp in Berlin-Marzahn with refugee children, women*, and stakeholders. In Playful Inclusion II, via urban interventions, we expanded this co-learning process to include not only refugee women* and children from the camp but also those from the broader Marzahn neighborhood. In Playful Inclusion III, we conducted interventions on two streets in Marzahn where refugee accommodations (GUs) are located, bringing together the perspectives of GU residents, neighbors, and stakeholders to discuss socio-spatial practices of home-making and belonging within these streets. In Playful Inclusion IV, building on the knowledge produced and needs identified in the previous Playful Inclusions and some other projects, we take the next step in the process of translating the co-produced knowledge into a co-designed light social infrastructure for the future of Marzahn. We use and further develop our playful methods from previous semesters to deepen research with neighbors and stakeholders, conduct feasibility studies for potential locations, review relevant permissions and regulations, and formulate concrete design recommendations for future implementation.

Continuing this semester, we will host a Summer School that advances the research and recommendations of Playful Inclusion IV, engaging neighbors and stakeholders in a collaborative design process to submit a concrete proposal for realizing this infrastructure in Marzahn.

This research group works in cooperation with the BENN project in Marzahn-Süd.

Image: © Saba Barani

Download poster here.