EKOS

The path to resilience

The board game to envision just urban futures through systems thinking and collaborative design

Welcome to the City of Ekos!

A group of community members must come together to design and build a network of resilient systems, and envision a more equitable and sustainable Ekos in the face of climate change and other challenges. As one of six actors  — a City Council Speaker, City Planner, Community Organizer, Ecologist, Designer, and Modeler — it is your mission to use resources wisely, collaborate with others and improve the adaptive capacity of your systems against extreme events like heat waves, floods, power outages and pandemics. 

To win, players must use systems thinking and explore concepts of resilience to collaborate, problem solve, and envision just urban futures. The game continues until one player earns 15 Ekos points! 

It is the near future in the City of Ekos. The planet is rapidly urbanizing, placing tremendous pressure on cities and urban areas to provide good living conditions for the majority of humanity…

About Ekos

Who is the Game For?: students, frontline communities, families, local communities, policy makers, designers, planners, architects and other municipal stakeholders

Created by: Urban Systems Lab at The New School

Genre: simulation, role-playing game, serious game

Number of players: 2 - 6 players; Ages 8+

Duration: 1-2 hours

Languages: English (Spanish/Español coming soon!)

  • Designing and building resilient cities, systems thinking, collaboration, exploring issues of equity, climate change, green infrastructure, participatory design, and climate adaptation.

  • Players will learn about many different forms of climate impacts and adaptation options. Players are encouraged to discuss urban complexity and how social, ecological, and technological systems interact. Players will better understand how green infrastructure and nature-based solutions can address integrated urban ecological and social challenges, and gain experience in analyzing real-world scenarios through ‘resilience thinking’.

TESTIMONIALS

Elizabeth Cook, Assistant Professor, Bard College, Columbia University

“The cooperative and collaborative nature of the game creates an excellent learning opportunity for how we address and solve the complex, real world problems of climate resilience and inequity now and in the future.”

Teacher

“A fun and accessible way to think about how cities are complex systems, and for bringing up local climate issues”