Minecraft Mania: Children in Bolivia use Minecraft to build real-world public spaces

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia, 8 April 2025 - As ‘A Minecraft Movie’ smashes box office records, children in Bolivia are showing how the video game is not just an entertainment blockbuster but can be used as a community hit – by helping to design better public spaces for children. 

 In the video game Minecraft, players can create their own virtual world using blocks and other resources to build structures like houses, castles, and cities, or to make items to go on adventures. A film adaptation, starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, overtook the record for a video game movie debut at its opening last weekend.   

 But in Bolivia a group of 20 children in a pilot project in Cochabamba have shown that Minecraft doesn’t have to be just virtual fun by using the video game’s “Block by Block” tool to build digital models of what they would like to see in their city in real life. 

 Children focused on ‘Barrios Unidos’, a neighborhood in the south of Cochabamba, Bolivia’s fourth largest city, that has four schools but is lacking public spaces for children. To improve the neighbourhood the children built parks, playgrounds, an outdoor gym, and skating rinks, and then all agreed to pool their ideas to transform the area into a central park that would be called “United Ideas”.  

The digital model developed by the children was then evaluated by an urban planning expert who incorporated changes to ensure compliance with safety and legal requirements, as well as urban planning rules and regulations. The local government viewed the final plan of the “United Ideas” park and agreed to incorporate the design into the 2025 budget although there remain financial challenges for its implementation.  

 The project was led by the Municipal Autonomous Government of Cochabamba together with Save the Children and UN-Habitat, with hopes to how expand the project to other municipalities. It is designed to give children knowledge of basic urban planning principles using a child-friendly programme like Minecraft to make complex concepts such as urban planning accessible and engaging for young people. 

 Jose*. one of the children involved in the programme, worked on a park in Minecraft, saying he wanted “this project to become a reality so that my community has a free space where we can have fun”. 

 A fellow participant, Sheila*, said she hoped the design from Minecraft could be implemented so that “all children and adolescents will feel happy”. 

 Marianela Montes de Oca, Save the Children Bolivia Country Director, said: 

 “With excitement around the Minecraft movie, we’re thrilled to see the engagement of children who want to bring their virtual designs and solutions on public spaces into real life. It’s amazing to see the value of having children’s perspectives of the needs in public infrastructure. Boys, girls and adolescents are important users of these spaces. They have tons of creative ideas to enrich the designs and to give solutions to their needs. Their voices should be always considered in the design process to reshape the cities”.  

 This programme was financed by LIFT Labs, the global innovation team at Save the Children, which is now seeking funds to expand the programme to other municipalities.  LIFT Labs work to foster a culture of innovation for children worldwide, and champion new ways of thinking, and problem solving. By learning through by doing, collaborating for impact, and embracing bold ideas, they help teams test, refine, and scale solutions that create meaningful change.

 Save the Children has been working in Bolivia since 1985 with a focus on education, health and nutrition, child protection, child poverty, governance, and humanitarian emergencies.  

 *Names changed