During the VOLUME 67 launch on June 26th, you will be able to play FALSEWORK‘s Urban Design Tarot, a playful tool to break through design gridlock and reawaken creative thinking about cities and complexity. What to expect? We asked Tim Peeters of FALSEWORK to explain.

Tim Peeters: ‘Urban design, especially in challenging locations, is a complex and therefore to some extent
mysterious activity. Oftentimes an opaque tangle of interests, actors, preconditions and ambitions
obfuscates the relationship between causes and effects – or indeed whether something is a cause
or an effect at all. The urge to manage complexity, an endeavour which inevitably involves
enormous amounts of meetings and e-mails, may lead to greater clarity yet also generates results
that do not really spark the imagination. Bureaucracy and risk management paralyse our
creativity: the more knowledge is being accumulated, the harder it seems to become to come up
with powerful or surprising solutions. That makes perfect sense, actually: those who have charted
every obstacle on the road take the safest route home – or won’t leave the house at all.

Since most urban projects carry enormous potential for positive change, it is crucial not to let risk
aversion hamper creativity too much. This deck of Tarot cards offers a solution by revealing
unexpected paths through the swamp of dullness. The discourse of city development is
condensed into 78 illustrated playing cards – actors, tools, concepts, themes – through which an
infinite spectrum of strategies for urban development can be divined. By drawing a number of
cards, and carefully interpreting their meaning, ways to jolt a stagnant thought process back to life
will make themselves known.

Tim Peeters: ‘This deck of Tarot cards offers a solution by revealing unexpected paths through the swamp of dullness.’

This deck of cards does not offer ready-made solutions. Almost nothing in life ever does. Instead,
it provides provoking surprises and reflections, especially when consulted during a group session.
Through the cards, those involved can explore the possibilities – and impossibilities – of certain
lines of thought within a particular case.’