Students build circular Escape Room in Nice place Sustainability Day: SAWA textbook example of circularity

Yesterday, three vmbo-t classes from the Libanon Lyceum Rotterdam started building Circular Escape Rooms on behalf of Nice Developers. They will do this using SAWA; the all-wood residential building with 109 apartments designed by Mei. This 'healthiest building in the Netherlands' has biodiversity and sustainability at its core and contains many circular components. The Escape Rooms designed by the students aim to take the player through the various circular aspects of SAWA. The project was conceived and designed by Utrecht-based Technotrend Foundation. The students are guided in the project by Game Knights.

The assignment, which runs for 10 weeks, is part of Lebanon Lyceum's Technology and Application (T&T) subject. The students began with a visit to client Nice Developers (in Nice Place) and the site where SAWA is being built. There the classes were explained how SAWA is constructed and the importance of circularity. The students then learned how to build their own Escape Room and got to work thinking about and creating the puzzles that make up the game. The Circular Escape Rooms must not only highlight the circular aspects of the building, but also the puzzles must be constructed from second-hand - circular - materials. Ultimately, all the puzzles must be sequenced so that the game's players can solve them one by one to find the Escape Room's exit.

What are Circular Escape Rooms?

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

In a Circular Escape Room, the puzzles are made with used materials, from a thrift store, for example. Thus, students learn how to give existing things a new use. It makes them aware of the value of reuse and recycling. Clients of Circular Escape Rooms are often companies and organizations that are working on Circular Economy, for example by furnishing or building their own offices with reused and reusable materials, such as wood. Nice Place - a refurbished brown pub with second-hand furnishings - ties in nicely with this.

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