Dr Cindy Frewen, FAIAFrewen Architects Inc, Kansas City + University of Houston

Design Futures WorkshopEmergent Futures

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1. Diverge2. Converge3. Communicate

DESIGN FUTURES PROCESS

Dronestorm 2030 -- Skydroid

ADAPTABUILDING

THE LOVEBOT

FIGGLE

Experiential futures

Design fictions

Artifacts from the future

Critical design

Interrogative design

1990 2000 2005 2010 2012

Jon Resnick OCAD 2011

Design futures

Our best guess at what lies over

the horizon

Wired.com

ARTIFACTS FROM THE FUTURE: FOUND

“an approach to design that speculates about new ideas through prototyping and storytelling.”

Design fictions…

BRUCE STERLING

Design Fiction

The deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change.Bruce Sterling @bruces 2012

Tangible Futures

The output of applying design-fueled disciplines like visualization, drama, and film to represent futures and strategies.Victor Lombardi http://noisebetweenstations.com/personal/weblogs/?cat=131

Definitions

Greg Van Alstyne, APF Pro Dev Day July 2012

Futures v design

Materialization of the speculative is historically absent from foresight methodology, and indeed from futures as a whole. This isn’t surprising, given that the

futures field is concerned with ideas and concepts, unlike design which has always been

concerned with the material world.Jon Resnick, OCAD, 2011

Ideo, Tim Brown

Design thinking

1. Design is intentional.The designer asks “Why.”

design purpose

2. Design solves or responds to a problem.

3. Design is creative problem solving.

4. Design is particular.

Design Futures marriesfutures methods with design thinking in order to materialize speculative futures worlds . . .• that engage at multiple

scales.

Things ActionsOrganizationsBuilt Environments

solutions

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Scale: Powers of Ten

Abstract to Imagined to Actual.Moving from large scale to particular.

Human * Global * Universal scales

Corbusier Modular Man http://aratta.wordpress.com

www.longnow.org

One way to see scale

http://www.wcsap.org/social-ecological-model

Left, ice crystals; Right, a computer-generated fractal coral reef

Metropolismag.com 28 May 2012

Why?

Image literacy involves the individual’s ability to

combine the materials of inner and outer experience worlds, drawn from all the senses, to shape new patterns of “reality.”

Children do it all the time, but it is called daydreaming, and they are punished for it.

Elise Boulding 1990

1. Diverge2. Converge3. Communicate

DESIGN FUTURES CHARRETTE

Design process

Ideo, Tim Brown

Critical resources….

Food

EnergyWater

• Ecology: Crazy Weather

• Energy: Energy Cost Is Spikey

• Technology: Rapid Custom Assembly

• Technology: Ambient Intelligence / Ubiquitous Computerization

• Society: Rapid Learning Networks

• Economy: Unstable Economic Cycles

Your team is given a question (from Drivers of Change card decks), related to:• Demographics• Technological• Economic• Political

Diverge – 20 minutesConverge – 10 minutesCommunicate – 20 minutes (including implications)

See handout….

• Urbanization• Waste• Energy• Climate Change• Water

DESIGN FUTURES PROCESS