Building birdhouses with LEGO? Affordance of LEGO ^® SERIOUS PLAY ^® for the green transition through public engagement and co-creation

The importance of public engagement in mobilizing the green transition, especially at the individual level, is calling for creative participatory methodologies. It has prompted a curiosity for how 3D materials and especially the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) method, can contribute to citizens’ engagement in municipal climate transitions. This paper furthers the current understandings of LSP in the context of the green transition through a one-time workshop during Rebild Municipality’s Climate Week in Denmark, a corresponding survey and follow-up interviews with participants. The results show how LSP brings citizens into transformative dialogues and can contribute to social cohesion as a foundation for the green transition more so than it generates concrete actions. The paper reflects the design, and output of the workshop and indicates that redeeming the potential of LSP requires fit-for-purpose design, insights into relevant arenas and an investment from participants to obtain the desired outcomes. This indicates a further need for participatory methodologies to incorporate more material dimensions.