Hamlet of Play
Game Design Workshops and Permanent Library of Games in Castelvetro di Modena
Hamlet of Play builds on the long tradition of Castelvetro di Modena as a place of playful magic. Following the restoration of the main square, Piazza della Dama (Checkers Square) and interjecting the restoration works of the Public Library, the project creates dedicated indoor spaces for games (Game Library and Game Room), an open air library of new and traditional street games in the medieval town and a series of workshop on play, street and board games to train local young creatives.
Italy
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Completed
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36008: Castelvetro di Modena (IT)
Hamlet of Play is a project of playful intervention creating a new focus and identity in Castelvetro di Modena’s public and cultural spaces to foster social cohesion, and community building. Castelvetro, a small municipality in the Province of Modena, is a town that is undergoing a profound transformation, known for its wine (Lambrusco), balsamic vinegar and culinary tradition is at risk of becoming a postcard town losing part of its heritage in exchange for a desirable, although artefacted, touristic vision.
Hamlet of Play focus on one of the traditions of the town:play and games. The initiative is composed of three main actions that are part of a longer plan that has started in 2025 with the restoration of Castelvetro's main public space, Piazza Roma, also known as Piazza della Dama -for its iconic black and white checker pavement that creates a human size checkers board- and will conclude with the restoration of the public library, Biblioteca Comunale (260k €, funded by the municipality).
The first action is the renewal of two spaces inside the public library, on the first floor we will create a Game Library, with a selection of Board games and Tabletop Role Play Games, that will serve the young population of Castelvetro (elementary and middle school). On the second floor, we will create a Game Room, a multifunctional room that will be used for creative workshops and play sessions.
Hamlet of Play second action is the hosting of a series of workshops on the topic of play and game design. Planned for December 2027 and hosted in the Game Room and Game Library, the workshop will be taught by Matteo Uguzzoni (SUNY Albany, NY), native of the area, he will bring his knowledge in game design and train new designers both in street and board games.
The third and last action of the project is the creation of an open-air library of street games that will be created during the workshop, to create a long lasting impact all around Castelvetro di Modena's city center.
Hamlet of Play focus on one of the traditions of the town:play and games. The initiative is composed of three main actions that are part of a longer plan that has started in 2025 with the restoration of Castelvetro's main public space, Piazza Roma, also known as Piazza della Dama -for its iconic black and white checker pavement that creates a human size checkers board- and will conclude with the restoration of the public library, Biblioteca Comunale (260k €, funded by the municipality).
The first action is the renewal of two spaces inside the public library, on the first floor we will create a Game Library, with a selection of Board games and Tabletop Role Play Games, that will serve the young population of Castelvetro (elementary and middle school). On the second floor, we will create a Game Room, a multifunctional room that will be used for creative workshops and play sessions.
Hamlet of Play second action is the hosting of a series of workshops on the topic of play and game design. Planned for December 2027 and hosted in the Game Room and Game Library, the workshop will be taught by Matteo Uguzzoni (SUNY Albany, NY), native of the area, he will bring his knowledge in game design and train new designers both in street and board games.
The third and last action of the project is the creation of an open-air library of street games that will be created during the workshop, to create a long lasting impact all around Castelvetro di Modena's city center.
Play
Game design
Open-air Library
Slow tourism
Creative industries
The city center of Castelvetro di Modena, the medieval portion of the town, is built at the conclusion of the hills that makes this region famous for its wine. As all medieval city centers it was built for slow traffic (human or animal powered) and in the past 20 years the municipality has enforced a Zona a Traffico Limitato, that effectively limits the presence of cars in the entire area, making it a perfect place for walking, biking and playing. The area is served by multiple tree-lined parking lots strategically placed to reduce the impact of traffic.
The materials used for the restoration of Piazza Roma, (Checkered Square), are sourced locally, thus reducing the impact on the CO2 emission and respecting the tradition of locally sourced building materials. The same approach has been applied to the restoration of the Biblioteca Comunale (public library), reducing the intervention to a minimum and respecting the original architecture of the medieval building. The Biblioteca courtyard’s pavement showcases the typical “sasso di fiume” (river’s stone) pattern, a design choice that is both extremely local, traditional and recurrent in the area, another km 0 solution.
When it comes to long term sustainability “Hamlet of Play” will create a niche creative excellence in game design creation that will serve the town attracting new talents and returning citizens. Game design being a highly collaborative career but adapted wonderfully to the new remote work reality, this project has the potential to connect Castelvetro ingenuity on a global level, without environmental impact or hyper-tourism.
The materials used for the restoration of Piazza Roma, (Checkered Square), are sourced locally, thus reducing the impact on the CO2 emission and respecting the tradition of locally sourced building materials. The same approach has been applied to the restoration of the Biblioteca Comunale (public library), reducing the intervention to a minimum and respecting the original architecture of the medieval building. The Biblioteca courtyard’s pavement showcases the typical “sasso di fiume” (river’s stone) pattern, a design choice that is both extremely local, traditional and recurrent in the area, another km 0 solution.
When it comes to long term sustainability “Hamlet of Play” will create a niche creative excellence in game design creation that will serve the town attracting new talents and returning citizens. Game design being a highly collaborative career but adapted wonderfully to the new remote work reality, this project has the potential to connect Castelvetro ingenuity on a global level, without environmental impact or hyper-tourism.
Hamlet of Play achieves aesthetic quality both in physical and experiential sense and in this can be an example of a project that creates value on multiple dimensions. On the physical and architectural level the restoration of Piazza Roma, checked square, and Biblioteca Comunale have been made to respect both traditional materials and looks and the highest quality possible for the budget. This is not only an aesthetic choice but one of savvy public money spending. We want the restoration to last generations and to remain active as our cultural beating heart for the time being. The same is true for the Public Library and its courtyard. When it comes to the experiential quality of the project we invite top class teachers to activate and transfer their knowledge to our community of young students and use top notch digital tools, to create the open air library that has both a small physical impact but can revitalize the city center with a new kind of tourism that is slow and active. With Hamlet of Play we want to act both on the street in their physicality and their aliveness.
Play is a universal language that encompasses borders, cultures and ages.
In embracing play we are accepting kids, girls, boys, seniors, immigrants, locals and everything in between, everybody plays!
Street games specifically are also known as pick-up games and what it means is that it’s enough to observe them to be able to understand the rules and become active participants. Clapping games, rope jumping, singing games have been particularly important in the tradition of street games and usually girls are the stewardess of these games, reclaiming their space in a positive way, when for example sports, tend to relegate them in a second category.
Finally seniors and local inhabitants are the living archives of what it meant to play before cars invaded the streets. They learn their game from previous generations and they will actively participate in the project as new protagonists.
The stakeholders of Hamlet of Play made it an intergenerational and intercultural project.
In embracing play we are accepting kids, girls, boys, seniors, immigrants, locals and everything in between, everybody plays!
Street games specifically are also known as pick-up games and what it means is that it’s enough to observe them to be able to understand the rules and become active participants. Clapping games, rope jumping, singing games have been particularly important in the tradition of street games and usually girls are the stewardess of these games, reclaiming their space in a positive way, when for example sports, tend to relegate them in a second category.
Finally seniors and local inhabitants are the living archives of what it meant to play before cars invaded the streets. They learn their game from previous generations and they will actively participate in the project as new protagonists.
The stakeholders of Hamlet of Play made it an intergenerational and intercultural project.
Hamlet of play will impact the life of different Castelvetro’s citizens in positive ways.
Directly it will impact the young citizens of Castelvetro that will attend the game design workshop and learn how to become game designers, game design techniques and the history of games. This core of creative knowledge will become useful in different ways whether they decide to pursue a career in games or not.
Local inhabitants of the city center, that in the last decades have seen a growing depopulation of the area, will have a renewed interest and activities bubbling in their neighborhood that is more lasting than the hyper tourism made of one day visit international tours. Thanks to the open-air library of street games kids and adults alike could visit the city center and spend a day following the principles of slow tourism. This will bring new economic development and a positive income fork for local inhabitants.
Making Castelvetro the town of Games, Hamlet of Play will positively impact the entire population of the surrounding areas, creating a new opportunity for socialization, developing a new social cohesion made of complicity mediated by play and street games.
Finally the visitors of the Public Library will be impacted even greatly, with the space redesigned and enriched with games and multi functional rooms, the Public Library will become a hub of creativity and knowledge.
Directly it will impact the young citizens of Castelvetro that will attend the game design workshop and learn how to become game designers, game design techniques and the history of games. This core of creative knowledge will become useful in different ways whether they decide to pursue a career in games or not.
Local inhabitants of the city center, that in the last decades have seen a growing depopulation of the area, will have a renewed interest and activities bubbling in their neighborhood that is more lasting than the hyper tourism made of one day visit international tours. Thanks to the open-air library of street games kids and adults alike could visit the city center and spend a day following the principles of slow tourism. This will bring new economic development and a positive income fork for local inhabitants.
Making Castelvetro the town of Games, Hamlet of Play will positively impact the entire population of the surrounding areas, creating a new opportunity for socialization, developing a new social cohesion made of complicity mediated by play and street games.
Finally the visitors of the Public Library will be impacted even greatly, with the space redesigned and enriched with games and multi functional rooms, the Public Library will become a hub of creativity and knowledge.
Hamlet of Play engages with 4 main stakeholders at the hyper local and international level.
Starting from the hyper local stakeholders, the project will involve senior citizens of Castelvetro’s city center, to map out the street games that were played in the old days and create a first library of it. The second stakeholder, also local, are the teachers and students of Castelvetro’s the elementary and middle school. These groups will be engaged during the fall of 2027, attend preparatory workshops and be the main target for the activation workshops of December 2027. Finally, the two teachers that will host the workshop are renowned game designer on national and international level, with Matteo Uguzzoni being just appointed Professor of Practice in Game Design at SUNY Albany, NY and being the founder of Trust in Play, the European School of Urban Game Design.
Starting from the hyper local stakeholders, the project will involve senior citizens of Castelvetro’s city center, to map out the street games that were played in the old days and create a first library of it. The second stakeholder, also local, are the teachers and students of Castelvetro’s the elementary and middle school. These groups will be engaged during the fall of 2027, attend preparatory workshops and be the main target for the activation workshops of December 2027. Finally, the two teachers that will host the workshop are renowned game designer on national and international level, with Matteo Uguzzoni being just appointed Professor of Practice in Game Design at SUNY Albany, NY and being the founder of Trust in Play, the European School of Urban Game Design.
Hamlet of Play combines knowledge on architecture, urban planning, game design, education, local history and interior design.
The renovation of Piazza Roma and the Biblioteca Comunale have been made with the highest standard in terms of materials to ensure longevity and aesthetic quality. All the structural changes have been made following the latest requirements and regulations pertaining to fire prevention. All the systems: electric, emergency lighting, fire hydrants, structurals have been following EU law and regulations.
Thanks to this sound canvas, more creative activities can flourish, but with the same rigor and knowledge. The Game Room and the Game Library will be designed to ensure the best play experience possible to visitors, without interfering with the other Public Library’s functions. The Open-Air library, thanks to non-invasive QR codes, will have a physical presence that together with an online repository, will ensure the possibility for players to learn site-specific games around the town of Castelvetro without big physical interventions that can disrupt the nature of the environment.
Castelvetro’s Elementary and Middle school will also be an active part of the project, inserting learning modules pertaining game design in the weeks preceding the workshops, opening up for creativity in the classroom.
The renovation of Piazza Roma and the Biblioteca Comunale have been made with the highest standard in terms of materials to ensure longevity and aesthetic quality. All the structural changes have been made following the latest requirements and regulations pertaining to fire prevention. All the systems: electric, emergency lighting, fire hydrants, structurals have been following EU law and regulations.
Thanks to this sound canvas, more creative activities can flourish, but with the same rigor and knowledge. The Game Room and the Game Library will be designed to ensure the best play experience possible to visitors, without interfering with the other Public Library’s functions. The Open-Air library, thanks to non-invasive QR codes, will have a physical presence that together with an online repository, will ensure the possibility for players to learn site-specific games around the town of Castelvetro without big physical interventions that can disrupt the nature of the environment.
Castelvetro’s Elementary and Middle school will also be an active part of the project, inserting learning modules pertaining game design in the weeks preceding the workshops, opening up for creativity in the classroom.
Games, specifically videogames, are the most influential and lucrative cultural product of the XXI century. With an industry value that surpasses the music and movie industry combined, it’s at the center of the cultural experience and consumptions of the younger generations.
Kids born after a certain year do not engage in books, movies or music as they engage in videogames. With an incredible pace, the growth of the games industry has affected the education system with game design programs popping up all over the world, mostly in the United States.
Italy has always been a playful country, with extensive use of public space, the tradition of card games, the country's weather and welcoming tradition, we host games, races, competitions that have roots in medieval times and even older. Some examples are the Siena Palio’s, known for its colorful parade, display of flags and equestrian dexterity, or the Lotta per la Spada dei Contrari, a reenactment of a 1409 b.c. event in the town of Savignano sul Panaro (Modena).
Hamlet of Play’s innovative character is in the concept of Castelvetro as a place of game creation, game making and game knowledge. Thanks to the Game Library and the Open-Air game library there will be two places of knowledge, easily accessible, to experiment and live games in their mechanics and structures. Thanks to the Game Room there will be a space for game creation, that will be used for the first workshop but will in the future, become a space of training with the goal to host a recurring summer school on urban games. Hamlet of Play will place Castelvetro di Modena on the map when it comes to game design, a new and unexplored discipline for Italy that can create an economic impact in the region.
Kids born after a certain year do not engage in books, movies or music as they engage in videogames. With an incredible pace, the growth of the games industry has affected the education system with game design programs popping up all over the world, mostly in the United States.
Italy has always been a playful country, with extensive use of public space, the tradition of card games, the country's weather and welcoming tradition, we host games, races, competitions that have roots in medieval times and even older. Some examples are the Siena Palio’s, known for its colorful parade, display of flags and equestrian dexterity, or the Lotta per la Spada dei Contrari, a reenactment of a 1409 b.c. event in the town of Savignano sul Panaro (Modena).
Hamlet of Play’s innovative character is in the concept of Castelvetro as a place of game creation, game making and game knowledge. Thanks to the Game Library and the Open-Air game library there will be two places of knowledge, easily accessible, to experiment and live games in their mechanics and structures. Thanks to the Game Room there will be a space for game creation, that will be used for the first workshop but will in the future, become a space of training with the goal to host a recurring summer school on urban games. Hamlet of Play will place Castelvetro di Modena on the map when it comes to game design, a new and unexplored discipline for Italy that can create an economic impact in the region.
Hamlet of Play follows a more traditional methodology in the first phase, Public Library restoration, while adding co-creation when it comes to the Open Air Library and the game design workshops.
Because of the nature of the architectural intervention of restoration, being about fire prevention and structural changes, the approach has been more traditional in the sense that the majority of the stakeholders have been technical partners and decision makers from the municipality. When it comes to Hamlet of Games, the object of the NEB prize submission, the approach will change and become co-creation following two main paths. The first is the engagement with the elementary and middle school teachers during the fall of 2027, they will work actively with the game designers to create a curriculum of workshop that is tailored to the kids that will attend it. The second path is the engagement of the senior resident of Castelvetro’s city center. For this, thanks to the municipality's relations with the senior associations and Pro Loco, we will host a workshop about street and traditional games and two walks in the public spaces of the city center, to enhance memory sharing.
As a note, below in the document section called "Please attach supporting documents demonstrating an existing proven commitment to the NEB values and working principles, such as a participatory or co-creation approach" we shared the Mayor letter as a testament to the commitment to the co-creative methodology.
Because of the nature of the architectural intervention of restoration, being about fire prevention and structural changes, the approach has been more traditional in the sense that the majority of the stakeholders have been technical partners and decision makers from the municipality. When it comes to Hamlet of Games, the object of the NEB prize submission, the approach will change and become co-creation following two main paths. The first is the engagement with the elementary and middle school teachers during the fall of 2027, they will work actively with the game designers to create a curriculum of workshop that is tailored to the kids that will attend it. The second path is the engagement of the senior resident of Castelvetro’s city center. For this, thanks to the municipality's relations with the senior associations and Pro Loco, we will host a workshop about street and traditional games and two walks in the public spaces of the city center, to enhance memory sharing.
As a note, below in the document section called "Please attach supporting documents demonstrating an existing proven commitment to the NEB values and working principles, such as a participatory or co-creation approach" we shared the Mayor letter as a testament to the commitment to the co-creative methodology.
Hamlet of Play connects knowledge about play and game design from different sources, shaking it to create a long lasting mix of transferred knowledge that can have a practical impact on a community. Everybody plays and everybody was, at some point in their life, an excellent game designer. Kids in primary school are still incredible game creators, but their knowledge and creative practice is relegated outside of class. In a true maieutic socratic tradition, hosting a workshop in game design is as much about learning as it is about remembering. For this reason the learning contributors to Hamlet of Play will be multiple and all equally important.
First in line will be the community of middle schoolers, kids that are starting to consume games (specifically videogames) as something that is technically remote and abstract, but that were creators of games, often site-specific games, until a few years earlier. They will bring the knowledge about the place, what it is that is effective and fun for their community. Secondly is the educator(s), professional in the game design field and academic research and teachers that are educating creative people that will become the next generation of game makers, they will bring their knowledge on game theory, game mechanics, team work and game production. Third is the local community, specifically inhabitants of the medieval center of Castelvetro, they are the steward of the place and the memory of it. They will bring the knowledge about the past, traditional street games, legends and stories of the place, that will inform the themes of the games created and help situate the project in the historical tradition of Castelvetro’s public space.
First in line will be the community of middle schoolers, kids that are starting to consume games (specifically videogames) as something that is technically remote and abstract, but that were creators of games, often site-specific games, until a few years earlier. They will bring the knowledge about the place, what it is that is effective and fun for their community. Secondly is the educator(s), professional in the game design field and academic research and teachers that are educating creative people that will become the next generation of game makers, they will bring their knowledge on game theory, game mechanics, team work and game production. Third is the local community, specifically inhabitants of the medieval center of Castelvetro, they are the steward of the place and the memory of it. They will bring the knowledge about the past, traditional street games, legends and stories of the place, that will inform the themes of the games created and help situate the project in the historical tradition of Castelvetro’s public space.
Hamlet of Play is beginning its first phase with the architectural restoration of Castelvetro’s public Library in November 2026. This first phase follows phase zero, that was the restoration of Piazza Roma, or Piazza della Dama (Checkers Square) that was inaugurated in March 2026. During the winter of 2026 and spring of 2027 we will start implementing Hamlet of Play, thanks to the NEB contribution with the interior design and creation of the Games Library (first floor) and the Game Room (second floor). During the fall of 2027 we will engage the municipality public schools and engage with the community stakeholders. In December of 2027 we will host the game design workshops to create a new selection of games for the square and other public spaces of Castelvetro’s city center. Finally in the following months, we will implement the open-air library of street games.
