Background & Context

We live in a time of war. Because of it and armed conflicts, hundreds of monuments are being destroyed every day. Whether as collateral damage or as direct targets of cultural cleansing, they are being reduced to rubble – and so is our heritage. These historic places are now in danger of being left out of history. Some might never be reconstructed, and we may never be able to set foot in them again.

Creative Challenge:

So we asked ourselves: how can we keep alive the legacies of these threatened and destroyed heritages in a disruptive way that not only tells their stories but also allows young people to experience and interact with them?

Solution:

If is no longer possible in the real world, at least we could make it so in the digital world – more specifically, Minecraft.

Through the game, a medium that the younger generations already know and love, we created a platform in which people from all over the world could work together and not only rebuild replicas of destroyed sites, but also learn about their cultures and stories. And, by working alongside teachers and schools from the Minecraft community, we had the opportunity to truly make the idea soar.

Execution:

We needed to ensure that this idea was easy to adopt. So we partnered with historians and researchers from UNESCO, as well as artists and developers from Minecraft, to create a set of levels that could be quickly picked up and used by anyone around the world. In a matter of days, people from over 30 countries joined the project, and monuments began to be reconstructed by teachers, students, and fans throughout the world. Their finished constructions will be open for visitation online for anyone with a copy of Minecraft to experience.