No Place Like Home

Tilly's Project explores the ways in which board games can be used as a tool for communicating complex social issues, as well as educate users in an accessible format. As a Cornish local, Tilly has seen the negative impact of second home owning and gentrification on Cornish communities and their effect on the current housing crisis. Titled ‘Trevow’ (the Cornish word referring to ‘home’, ‘village’, or ‘town’), the aim of the game is to occupy the majority of the board, surrounding the other players pieces in order to take their home, either playing as the gentrifier (house-shaped pieces) or the gentrified (the Cornish tin mines). Through satire, her game invites players to confront the real life consequences of displacement, gentrification, and the erasure of community identity. The game symbolises how tight-knit communities in Cornwall are currently at risk of becoming unaffordable, abandoned in winter, and stripped of unique local identity due to the rise of second homes and short-term holiday rentals.

Tilly Horton