Students Build Circular Escape Room in Nice place Sustainability Day: SAWA a textbook example for circularity

Yesterday, three VMBO-T classes from the Libanon Lyceum Rotterdam Nice Developers building Circular Escape Rooms on behalf of Nice Developers . They will do this using SAWA, the entirely wooden residential building with 109 apartments designed by Mei. This 'healthiest building in the Netherlands' places a high priority on biodiversity and sustainability and contains many circular components. The Escape Rooms designed by the students aim to immerse players in the various circular aspects of SAWA. The project was conceived and designed by Stichting Technotrend in Utrecht. The students are being supervised in the project by Game Knights.

The assignment, which runs for ten weeks, is part of the Technology and Application (T&T) course at the Libanon Lyceum. The students started with a visit to the client Nice Developers in Nice Place) and the site where SAWA is being built. There, the classes were given an explanation of how SAWA works and the importance of circularity. The students then learn how to build an Escape Room themselves and set to work devising and creating the puzzles that make up the game. The Circular Escape Rooms should not only highlight the circular aspects of the building, but the puzzles should also be made from second-hand – circular – materials. Ultimately, all the puzzles must be put in order so that the players of the game can solve them one by one and find their way out of the Escape Room.

What are Circular Escape Rooms?

In education, creating Escape Rooms is increasingly utilized as a creative and educational assignment, often in collaboration with a real client. Escape Rooms are popular games where a group of people are locked in one or more rooms. Within a set time, players must solve a series of puzzles to reach the exit and free themselves.

In a Circular Escape Room, the puzzles are made from second-hand materials, for example, from a thrift store. This teaches students how to give existing items a new application, making them aware of the value of reuse and recycling. Clients for Circular Escape Rooms are often companies and organizations involved in the Circular Economy, for instance, by furnishing or constructing their own offices with reused and reusable materials, such as wood. Nice Place – a renovated brown pub with second-hand furnishings – aligns perfectly with this.

We can't wait to see what the students will design!