Ludic Culture Hub: Leveraging Play for Innovation, Education and Transformative Futures
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Content of this page
Profile
- Project leadership
- Hiloko Kato (ZHdK)
- Project team
- Bernadette Spieler (PHZH), Christian Mathis (PHZH), Adrian Degonda (PHZH), Janine Trütsch (PHZH), Larissa Meyer-Baron (PHZH), Andri Gerber, Stefan Schmidlin (ZHdK)
- Organisational unit
- F-BW-BDW (Bildung und Digitaler Wandel)
- Project phase
- In progress (1.10.2026 – 30.9.2029)
- Project type
- Research & development project
- Funding
- Digitalization Initiative
Description
Play as a space for research and innovation
The Ludic Culture Hub establishes a shared structure for research, education, design, and knowledge transfer around play, games, and interactive media. It brings together the University of Zurich, Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich University of Teacher Education, and Zurich University of Applied Sciences. By working closely with schools, education authorities, the local games industry, cultural institutions, and other practice partners, the initiative creates a dynamic ecosystem that bridges academia and society and explores the significance of ludic practices for education, society, technology, and sustainable development.
“Ludic culture” is understood in a broad and generative sense. It is not only targeted to digital games, but also encompasses simulation, experimentation, the modelling of possible futures, and the creative exploration of complex systems. Play and ludic practices enable individuals and institutions to test assumptions, engage with uncertainty, and explore alternative modes of action. Within this wider framework, the Ludic Culture Hub positions ludic practices as a key driver of societal reflection, responsible technological development, and sustainable cultural transformation.
A shared physical space at the Swiss Game Hub in Zurich Oerlikon connects the four higher education institutions with the Swiss games industry. It provides space for research, co-creation, events, and continuous exchange with practice partners.
Four dimensions of ludic culture
The activities of the Ludic Culture Hub are organised around four interconnected thematic dimensions:
- “Ludic Social Analysis”, led by the University of Zurich, investigates games as cultural and social practices and examines both their constructive and potentially adverse effects on society.
- “Ludic Experience and Experiments”, led by Zurich University of the Arts, explores how ludic methods can be used for design, production, education, artistic practice, and research.
- “Ludic Education”, led by PHZH, translates research-based insights and cultural perspectives on games into educational practice, classroom teaching, teacher professional development, and school development.
- “Ludic Sustainability”, led by ZHAW, focuses on two interconnected aspects: leveraging games for sustainability and making the Swiss games industry more sustainable.
The dimensions address key societal, technological, and cultural challenges. Digital literacy, artificial intelligence, inclusion and diversity, as well as ecological and technological sustainability, are treated as cross-cutting topics.
Ludic education at PH Zurich
The “Ludic Education” dimension addresses the relevance of play, games, and ludic cultures for contemporary schooling. Children and young people grow up in environments shaped by games and interactive media, while schools are increasingly challenged to engage with these practices in a pedagogically grounded, reflective, and sustainable way. The dimension is grounded in the Dagstuhl Triangle, which conceptualises games from three complementary perspectives: game design, game culture, and games for learning. This framework supports a holistic educational understanding that goes beyond treating games merely as instructional tools. In particular, game design highlights creative and constructive practices, enabling learners to actively design, modify, analyse, and reflect on games as complex systems. PH Zurich connects this approach with classroom and curriculum development, initial and continuing teacher education, and school development. The models and materials developed are tested and refined with schools and practice partners (e.g., the Zurich cantonal education authority, Inlusio Interactive, and Sekundarschule Seehalde). The work places a strong emphasis on curricular alignment, long-term structural relevance, and coherence with cantonal strategies in education, digitalisation, and media and computer science education. The following flagship initiatives are planned within this dimension.
Flagship 1: Holistic games in education framework
Together with the Zurich cantonal education authority and other partners, PHZH is developing a framework for the pedagogically grounded integration of games into compulsory education. The initiative analyses existing practices, identifies gaps and opportunities, and co-develops feasible models for classroom implementation across different school levels and contexts. The initiative combines conceptual work with selective pilot activities in schools. It focuses on the development and discussion of exemplary teaching units, professional development formats, and school-related use cases. Where appropriate, these examples are tested, reflected upon, and iteratively refined in collaboration with schools, teachers, and partners.
The central goal is to connect the three perspectives of the Dagstuhl Triangle and translate them into concrete and sustainable school practices. These perspectives are to be embedded systematically in curricula, school development processes, and teacher professional development. The framework is aligned with existing cantonal strategies and initiatives in education, digitalisation, and media and computer science education. It aims to contribute to long-term structural development rather than isolated pilot interventions.
Flagship 2: Game design festival for schools
The “game design festival for schools” is a practice-oriented initiative that enables primary and secondary students and teachers to design, develop, and present analogue or digital games within a structured educational and creative framework. It combines classroom-based project work with optional workshops, professional input, online resources, tutorials, templates, and collaborative formats such as game jams. This work culminates in an annual festival where student games are exhibited, played, and discussed in dialogue with experts from education, higher education, game design, and the creative industries. The festival includes submission processes, jury evaluation, exhibition formats, awards, and public engagement activities. The initiative aims to foster key competencies such as creativity, storytelling, game design, and problem solving. At the same time, it establishes a sustainable festival and learning format that connects schools, teacher education, higher education, and the creative sector. Through annual evaluation and refinement cycles, the festival is developed into a scalable model for long-term educational innovation.
Flagship 3: IMPACT+
IMPACT+ is a design-based research and transfer initiative focused on game-based and unplugged programming concepts in primary education and their transition to visual programming environments. Building on an existing analogue and digital game prototype, the project combines iterative game design, empirical educational research, and classroom implementation within a stable partner structure involving schools, higher education institutions, and design partners. The current third phase of IMPACT+ focuses on the long-term accompaniment of schools over a three-year period. In grades 3 and 4, learning is centred on game-based and unplugged play activities using the IMPACT+ game. In grades 5 and 6, this is followed by a structured transition to visual programming. A controlled study design with intervention and control groups examines learning transfer and impact over time. The research addresses cognitive learning outcomes as well as motivational, affective, and attitudinal dimensions of computational thinking and programming education. It investigates how early game-based and unplugged programming education can support sustainable learning pathways into formal digital programming. The game prototypes, teaching materials, online resources, and professional development formats are iteratively refined, implemented, and evaluated with schools and design partners. The initiative produces an empirically validated IMPACT+ prototype, scientific publications, open educational resources, and evidence-based recommendations for curricula, teaching materials, and the long-term development of computer science education.
Cross-university collaboration: Games, history, and civic education
Another project contributes expertise in social studies, history, and civic education, with a particular focus on learners’ thinking, children’s free play, and the integration of storytelling and ludic elements into educational materials.
PHZH’s contribution to the overall project
In addition to leading the “Ludic Education” dimension, PHZH strengthens the connection between research and practice. It brings schools, education authorities, higher education institutions, the games industry, and public organisations into continuous exchange and supports the collaborative development, testing, and dissemination of new approaches.