building lego prototypes for the city
TRANSCRIPT
Building Lego prototypesfor the city
…my latest experiment in Futures work
Emile HOOGE@ehooge
APF’s V-GATHERING FUTURES FESTIVALOctober 26, 2011
Can we get different people to work together on the future of cities?
urbanist
futuristartist
designer
engineer
assets managermayor
child?dog?
banker
Can we tackle the whole system of the city in just a few hours?
City Pulse project by MIT Senseable City Lab
Stage 2Learning a new language
Denotation : “a car”
Connotation : ”interdependence”
Special thanks to David Gauntlett for some pics and giving me the idea of using Lego in the first place!
Stage 3Building prototypes of
social innovations “urban rest place”
“neighbourhood networked windows”“chariot-sharing for personal goods transport”
and many more…
Stage 5Building future cities
around the prototypes
This future city: - links innovations at multiple scales in a fractal way
- introduces serendipity and messiness in planning
Stage 5Building future cities
around the prototypes
This future city: - facilitates networking and citizen empowerment
- promotes local citizen-champions - designs public space to accommodate pop-up or mobile services
Stage 5Building future cities
around the prototypes
This future city: - creates shareable resources and infrastructures
- organises new types of public-private-community partnerships- makes political decision about
some places and services that are regarded as Commons- develops local alternative currencies to manage the Commons
and support shareable lifestyles
I CAME TO SOME CONCLUSIONS…
My mother thinks I’m still playing with Legowhile I’m actually doing some proper futures work
(or not?)
by making something first and then presenting something wholeby linking prototypes together
CONTRIBUTION TO A SYSTEMS APPROACH
CONTRIBUTION TO VISIONNING A DESIRABLE FUTUREby combining desirable innovations
CONTRIBUTION TO DEALING WITH PRECONCEPTIONSby using Lego as a new common language
by applying induction rather than deductionby getting people to speak about what they have built
by engaging a diverse audience
CONTRIBUTION TO FOCUSING ON VALUES AND MEANING
by placing a « common » in the centre of the sceneby asking the « why? » question as well as the « how? » question
by giving people time to think while they build with their hands
CONTRIBUTION TO PREPARING FOR ACTIONby using a hands-on approach and actually prototyping ideas
by working with people involved in their communitiesby building a future vision of the city supporting desired innovations
LIMITS IN SCALABILITY
BIAS INDUCED BY THE METHODFocusing on innovation as main driver towards the future
Focusing on the local before thinking globalFocusing on feelings and emotions rather than facts and figures
Maintaining the momentum (will the fun factor eventually die out?)Replicating on a large scale (over time and space)