Innovative Facilities

GAME has more than 10 years of experience in building innovative facilities, called GAME Houses, that lower the threshold for participation.

The goal is for street sports and street culture to be accessible to everyone – even when the weather does not allow it. Here people can meet and engage in various activities and therefore strengthen the communities around street sports and the culture. Involving the local communities is an important part of the process of building GAME Houses. Before and after the opening of the facilities, the users are invited to take part in several participatory workshops.

Urban street architecture

The GAME Houses have a strong focus on sustainability in terms of the reuse of old buildings and materials for new functions. The urban street culture architecture complements the industrial history of the buildings with their raw and distinctive character and keeps the construction costs down compared to traditional indoor sports facilities.

So does the partnership model working with local private, public and civil-sector partners to keep the economic threshold for the members and participants in the GAME Houses to an important minimum, in order to deliver social sustainability in the facilities.

From 2018 to 2021, the Center for Research in Sports, Health and Civil Society at the University of Southern Denmark has conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the three newest GAME Houses in Esbjerg, Aalborg and Viborg.

The evaluation shows that 13% of GAME’s users didn’t participate in sports before they started coming in their local GAME House.

“I would say, that if you can get 13% that haven’t been physically active before to participate in sports, you’re doing better than most,” says one of the municipal leaders from Viborg in the evaluation.

Read more of the results here.

Sustainable design

As aforementioned, sustainable practice is a core value and permeates through GAME. As it relates to the GAME Houses, much strategy goes into minimizing the carbon footprint during creation. Research in 2022 by Rådet for Grøn Omstilling (page 40) lends support to GAME’s emphasis on sustainability. Compared to the median value of embodied carbon emissions of new construction sites being 7.1kg per year, GAME was able to limit theirs to 2.32kg. Much of this can be attributed to the fact that GAME reuses large parts of the existing construction.

Although RGO credits GAME as an organization practicing sustainability correctly, We are by no means perfect. That being said, it is evident that GAME is not only trying to prioritize sustainability but also welcoming new knowledge and findings to continue improving our current attempts.

See the making of the houses right here:

GO TO OUR FOUR EXISTING GAME HOUSES HERE:

Booking: Teambuilding, Event or Meeting (DK)
Become a Partner: GAME & Friends (DK)
Webshop: webshop.game.ngo (DK)
Virtual Tour: Aalborg ; Esbjerg

OUTDOOR INNOVATIVE FACILITIES

GAME also develops and refurbishes outdoor facilities for street sports in underserved communities. The goal is to create safe and inclusive spaces for physical activities and positive communities. In the Playmaker Programs, the outdoor facilities are grounds for the youth volunteers to lead weekly practices in street sports for local children and youth. The same goal goes for GAME’s entrepreneurship programs like the MEREGADE and the Street Sports Incubator.