Speaker
Description
Urban design and planning often operate within a top-down framework driven by technocracy. While methodologically rigorous, this approach frequently alienates the very communities it is meant to serve. In Kuwait, this paradigm has resulted in urban environments disproportionately tailored to the needs of car drivers, marginalising public space use and creating lasting repercussions for mobility, social interaction, public health, and environmental sustainability. Despite growing awareness of these issues, bridging the gap between values and needs remains a significant challenge.
To address this disconnect, a team of researchers developed Kuwaitscapes, an innovative card game designed to democratise urban planning conversations and foster meaningful public engagement. This game emerged from the London School of Economics Kuwait Programme’s research project, Public Space in Kuwait: From User Behaviour to Policy-Making, which investigates the interplay between user needs and urban policy.
Kuwaitscapes contextualises Kuwait's unique socio-cultural conditions and built environment through a structured yet flexible gameplay format. The game employs a diverse set of cards categorised by public space typologies, user demographics, intervention tools, and nudge cards, encouraging players to critically engage with the complexities of Kuwait’s urban landscape. The cards are versatile enough to serve as an educational tool for children learning about cities or to be used by citizens and public authorities in participatory planning workshops to collaboratively solve urban issues. The cards can also be employed by experts and enthusiasts as a design-thinking tool.
This presentation will explain the rationale behind the tool and the results of initial playtests with a broad spectrum of participants, including children and young adults. These playtests facilitated collective discussions about urban issues, empowered participants to contribute to urban planning conversations, explored diverse perspectives, and generated actionable ideas. Kuwaitscapes demonstrates the potential of gamification as a tool for bridging the divide between academic research and public discourse, raising awareness, and fostering creativity—all while ensuring the process is engaging and fun. By making complex urban issues tangible and relatable, the game can empower young communities to envision a more inclusive and sustainable future.
In conclusion, Kuwaitscapes offers a compelling example of how games can redefine the relationship between urban research and public engagement. By fostering dialogue, creativity, and collaboration—with a particular focus on younger generations—it paves the way for more inclusive and context-sensitive urban planning practices in Kuwait, the Gulf countries, and beyond.
References
Peca Amaral Gomes, Alexandra, Asseel Al-Ragam, and Sharifa AlShalfan. 2021. ‘Reclaiming Public Space in Kuwait’s Residential Neighbourhoods: An Applied Policy-Oriented Approach’. Monograph 8. London, UK: LSE Middle East Centre. http://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/publications.
| Keywords | Urban Planning; Gamification; Public Engagement; Sustainability; Urban futures |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
