Kuwaitscapes

Games are a great way to communicate urban research to wider audiences. They are also a fun and interactive tool to engage public participation and collaboration when designing and teaching. Based on this understanding, 'Kuwaitscapes' is a card game that developed from the LSE Kuwait Programme research project 'Public Space in Kuwait: From user behaviour to policy-making'.

The cards are contextualised to Kuwait’s socio-cultural conditions and its built environment. They encourage thinking about the diversity of people that use Kuwait’s public space, the variety of spaces and scales of urban analysis, along with physical and social tools that can help improve the use of these urban spaces. The main goal of the game is to be the first player to improve an area to a particular character using the matching tools available.

This game facilitates the discussion of real urban issues, engaging everyone (from kids to adults, from lay citizens to planners and designers), while reducing the knowledge gap on urban planning and design within the Kuwait society. Raising awareness and encouraging creativity are the objectives while having fun. Explore the video below to know more about the game.

Video

Kuwaitscapes

 The cards are versatile enough to be used as an educational tool for children to learn about cities or be used by citizens and public authorities at participatory planning workshops to solve urban issues together. The cards can also be used by experts, and enthusiasts as a design thinking tool. Follow the links below to know more about the project, the team behind it, and to download the game. The game is freely available to download here. Just print it, cut it, and have fun!

Cards development by

Alexandra Gomes, Tanushree Agarwal, Asseel Al-Ragam and Sharifa Alshalfan.

Design and illustrations

Tanushree Agarwal.

Blog post about the game

• Alexandra Gomes, Sharifa Alshalfan, Asseel Al-Ragam and Tanushree Agarwal, ‘Reimagining Public Space Through Cards in Kuwait’, LSE Middle East Centre Blog, 19 October 2022. 
• Alexandra Gomes, Tanushree Agarwal, Asseel Al-Ragam and Sharifa Alshalfan, 'Using games for inclusive research and policy design – The case of Kuwaitscapes', LSE Impact Blog, 3 March 2022. 

Download the cards

This game includes 90 playing cards, 6 rules cards and three sheets with more information about the cards and a more comprehensive version of the rules. You are welcome to follow the rules or “hack” them to make new uses or a game of your own. If you do, please send us your rules so that we can share them with others. We also welcome your feedback. Please use the comments box below. We would greatly appreciate your feedback. When downloading the cards and rules you will be under the following Creative Commons license: ©2021.

KUWAITSCAPES card game by Alexandra Gomes, Tanushree Agarwal, Asseel Al-Ragam and Sharifa Alshalfan is licensed under a Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. All rights reserved.

Download the cards (PDF)

Download the Arabic cards (PDF)

Hacking Kuwaitscapes Winner!

We are delighted to announce the winners of the ‘Hacking Kuwaitscapes’ competition. We are pleased to award first place to Sara Syed, whose entry stood out for its simplicity, creativity and collaborative approach, whilst thinking of the diversity of characters.

We would also like to recognize the excellent work of the runner-up, Giovanni Pérez Macías. His entry was equally striking, and the jury was deeply impressed by the intersection between the individuality, collective and collaborative playing.

Our gratitude to the jury members: Alexandra Gomes (LSE Cities), Asseel Al-Ragam (Kuwait University), Mercedes Masters, Nesrin Alrefaai, Kendall Livingston and Salma Moustafa-Khalil (LSE Middle East) and Jana Alkheshnam, Mohammad Alkheshnam, Yousef Alkheshnam (young Kuwaiti residents).  

To explore the new Kuwaitscapes rules, you can download the both winner and runner-up rules below.

Winner: Sara Syed is a sociology graduate with a first-class honours degree from the Open University. She researches and writes about the use of emerging technologies in society and in smart and sustainable cities. Click here to read her winning rules. 

Runner Up: Giovanni Pérez is a Colombian Lawyer living in Argentina, a former consultant and public servant in urban planning. He is also a certified facilitator and designer of games and workshops on urban and environmental planning, public participation and citizen engagement. Click here to read his rules.

Acknowledgements

Our thanks to the LSE Kuwait Programme and KFAS for the research funding, to all the researchers from the Public Space in Kuwait project, and to Ian Sinclair for helping with the logistics. Thank you to LSE Cities and in particular Philipp Rode, and Kuwait University. Thank you to everyone who tested the game in particular Olivia, Sasha, Maya, Ash and Rohan. Thank you to @potatonose961 for the mural image used in the 'Street art festivals' Tool card. Thank you to Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi, Boom.Diwan with Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra for the video soundtrack. Thank you to Tian Macleod Ji and Morgan Twiston Davies for their video editing and animations And finally, our appreciation to LSE Sociology and LSE KEI for funding the video, and in particular Laura Kemp and Louise Jones.

Feedback

Email Alexandra Gomes.