Authorship：Lead author   Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：Academic Conferences and Publishing International Ltd  

Game-based learning (GBL) has shown promise for engaging citizens in participatory urban planning, with Minecraft-based initiatives such as UN-Habitat's Block by Block programme reaching over 55 countries. However, evaluations of these initiatives remain predominantly qualitative, and few studies combine pre/post statistical testing with behavioural process data. In Japan, participatory urban planning follows the tradition of machizukuri, a bottom-up approach to community-driven town-making that has progressively incorporated design games and digital tools, yet rarely targets younger populations with rigorous outcome measurement. This paper presents the design, implementation and mixed-methods evaluation of an open-source game-based workshop for youth participatory urban design. The workshop integrates Japan's national 3D city model data (MLIT's PLATEAU), the Blender modelling environment and the Godot game engine into a mission-based co-design activity in which students redesign a real public park. Unlike Minecraft-based approaches, it uses real geospatial data at actual scale, supports both design-time placement and first-person exploration, and relies exclusively on free software. Fifty sixth-grade students (aged 11–12) at a public elementary school in Yokohama, Japan, participated in groups of 3–5. Five data streams were collected: pre/post Likert surveys (n=36 paired), post-only items, conversation transcription and classification (21,612 words across 12 groups) and map annotations (n=17) with open-ended responses (n=34). In this single-group design, Wilcoxon signed-rank tests indicated increases in civic participation willingness (p < 0.001, paired d = 0.66), career interest in urban design (p < 0.001, d = 0.89) and interest in the target site (p = 0.017, d = 0.35), while perceived tool difficulty did not change; the first two results remain significant under Bonferroni correction, the third does not. Conversation analysis showed a shift from operational to design-oriented discourse (chi-square, p < 0.001, Cramér's V = 0.17), the design-to-operation ratio rising from 0.82 to 1.96. Post-only items showed 90.9% agreement that the game mode was exciting. Because the study included no control group and students worked in clustered groups, these results describe short-term associations rather than causal effects. The study nevertheless demonstrates the value of multi-modal evaluation for small-sample serious game interventions.

File： Martial+039.pdf

DOI： 10.34190/ecgbl.20.1.5333

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Authorship：Lead author   Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：Copernicus GmbH  

Abstract. Open 3D city-model datasets are increasingly available worldwide through the CityGML standard, and Japan’s Project PLATEAU is among the largest national open initiatives of its kind. Yet official software development kits exist only for the proprietary Unity and Unreal engines, and no documented route connects PLATEAU data to an open-source interactive environment. This paper presents and evaluates a fully open-source geospatial pipeline that transforms CityGML data into a lightweight, interactive, real-time 3D application suitable for the low-specification hardware typically found in schools and community centres. The pipeline relies exclusively on free and open-source software, using Blender for geospatial processing and 3D optimisation and the Godot Engine for real-time rendering and interaction. We document the pipeline at the level of detail required for reproduction, including the PLATEAU data model and tiling scheme, the reprojection from the native geographic frame (EPSG:6697) to a metric local frame, the geometry-repair and level-of-detail decisions, and the automatic generation of the collision geometry that a game engine requires but a GIS does not. The pipeline was validated as a deployment stress test in a participatory urban-design workshop with approximately fifty elementary-school students in Yokohama, during which 1,192 assets were placed without system failure on six standard classroom computers. We identify Blender as the indispensable bridge component and the collision layer as the technical linchpin, and we argue that the present manual workflow, while reproducible, is still too complex for non-experts; we therefore outline a realistic turnkey, automated successor.

File： isprs-archives-L-4-W1-2026-143-2026.pdf

DOI： 10.5194/isprs-archives-l-4-w1-2026-143-2026

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Authorship：Lead author   Language：English  

File： 000 all RJ2026 Conference Proceedings.pdf

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Authorship：Lead author   Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (conference, symposium, etc.)   Publisher：Center for Open Science  

<p>This paper examines the intersection of machizukuri, Japan’s collaborative, bottom-up approach to community planning, and the growing field of game-based learning in urban design. It traces the evolu-tion of participatory planning methods in Japan, emphasizing how machizukuri has progressively incor-porated digital tools and gamification to strengthen civic engagement. Drawing on international and do-mestic examples, the study analyzes how serious games and game engines, such as Godot, can enhance spatial literacy, collaborative learning, and youth empowerment in urban contexts. Building on this theo-retical foundation, the paper proposes an open-source participatory workshop framework that integrates open-source GIS data, 3D modeling (Blender), and real-time simulation (Godot). This framework reinter-prets machizukuri as a form of digital civic experimentation, bridging traditional community practices with contemporary digital infrastructures. The study concludes by discussing the framework’s pedagogi-cal, methodological, and social implications, highlighting its potential to foster spatial reasoning, civic re-sponsibility, and inclusive urban co-design among younger generations.</p>

File： JSCE72 - Game-Based Learning and Machizukuri - Gamification in youth participatory urban planning in Japan.pdf

DOI： 10.31235/osf.io/2jdz9_v1

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Authorship：Lead author   Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (conference, symposium, etc.)   Publisher：Center for Open Science  

<p>This article explores the innovative use of video games in teaching architecture and urbanism, focusing on the United Nations’ "Block by Block" program and its connection to Japan’s community-based urban planning approach, "machizukuri." Through detailed case studies and comparative analysis, the study ex-amines the effectiveness of these methods in engaging young people and fostering community involvement in urban planning. The findings suggest that integrating digital tools like Minecraft into participatory plan-ning processes can enhance engagement and educational outcomes, offering valuable lessons for future urban planning education.</p>

File： JSCE70 - Engaging youth in architecture and urbanism through video games.pdf

DOI： 10.35542/osf.io/em698_v1

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Language：Japanese   Presentation type：Oral presentation (invited, special)  

File： Blenderで生活環境を「見える化」する.pdf

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Event date： 2026.9 - 2026.10

Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (invited, special)  

File： ECGBL2026 Martial Presentation.pdf

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Event date： 2026.9 　 　

Language：Japanese  

File： コンビニカフェ構想_発表資料.pdf

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Event date： 2026.8 - 2026.9

Language：English  

File： From CityGML to Game Engine - FOSS4G 2026.pdf

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Event date： 2026.8 　 　

Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (invited, special)  

File： From Sacred Spots to Town-Making (Presentation).pdf

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Type：Seminar, workshop

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Author：Other 

Made in Motion is a short documentary about Tokyo’s informal bike infrastructure and the people who rely on it. The city’s many narrow roadways discourage through traffic and require slow speeds–creating an informal network of shared streets. And unlike many bike-friendly cities, a majority of Tokyo’s cyclists are women. Women on bikes are so prevalent that the bicycle most often used for daily rides and errands is called a “mamachari,” literally a “mom’s bike.” But the city is gradually losing its cyclists as cars dominate roads. Without reallocating street space for safe connections and protected bike lanes on Tokyo’s large roadways, this trend will continue.

Made in Motion charts a research trip made by Ben Sant-Johnson and his mother, the author Alison Sant, for her book Streetlife. It follows the stories of cyclists whose experiences and advocacy are the focus of her work. Seen through her son’s perspective, as an American navigating Tokyo by bike, it explores the rhythms and hopes of people moving through the city on two wheels. Together, they interviewed bicyclists, advocates, and community members involved in efforts to shape the future of the city’s streets in support of Tokyo’s unique cycling culture.

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Author：Other 

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Author：Other 

Why so many people in Japan ride bicycles | Léo Martial | TEDxYNU
Léo told us a story about the bicycle culture in Japan using his own experience living here, in Yokohama, as a PhD student. Léo Martial was born in France in 1987. He graduated from the Ecole spéciale d’architecture in Paris in 2010 with a major in architecture. His interest about transportation, especially railway and bicycle, was born during his first contact with Japan when he was an exchange student at Tokai University in 2008. He freelanced as an architect in 2012 and mainly worked for the French railway company SNCF where he designed and renovated several train stations around Paris for four years. Laureate of the Japanese government scholarship in 2017, he is now pursuing his research about transportation further with a PhD thesis at Yokohama National University about the synergy of train and bicycle through comparative analysis between Japan and Europe. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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