Beschreibung |
How can we explore alternative urban futures beyond traditional forecasting methods? This seminar investigates speculative design and design fiction as powerful tools to rethink urban environments, architecture, and societal transformations. Instead of merely analyzing trends, students will engage in future-making by developing speculative artifacts that challenge conventional perspectives on cities, technology, and design.
In an era of increasing complexity, climate crises, and rapid technological advancements, urban landscapes are shifting unpredictably. Through a design-driven approach, students will create tangible representations of speculative urban futures, exploring themes like post-human cities, autonomous infrastructures, decentralized communities, and alternative urban ecologies. By building and visualizing these imagined futures, they will critically assess how cities evolve under different scenarios and design interventions.
This seminar combines hands-on prototyping, narrative-driven foresight, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Students will work with Futures Wheels, Worldbuilding, and Design Fiction Scenarios to design speculative urban interventions, bridging creativity with research-based foresight. The course highlights how speculative design serves as a strategic tool for urban innovation, allowing participants to prototype possibilities, navigate uncertainty, and reframe societal challenges through creative engagement with the future.
By the end of the course, students will not only understand foresight methodologies but also apply them to create thought-provoking, immersive, and critically engaging visions of urban futures.
Key Learning Objectives:
- Develop futures literacy and systemic thinking.
- Apply speculative design and design fiction to urban, architectural, and technological challenges.
- Use prototyping as a medium for exploring alternative futures.
- Strengthen collaborative, creative, and analytical skills.
- Translate abstract foresight concepts into tangible, communicative artifacts.
Prüfungsleistung: Instead of a traditional paper, students will produce a "Future Artifact Book", compiling their speculative designs, visual narratives, and conceptual reflections. This book will serve as a tangible representation of their work, bridging imagination with academic inquiry.
Termin: Blockseminar, 17.04.2025 (09:15 - 10:45), 02.05.2025 (09:00 - 18:00), 03.05.2025 (09:00 - 18:00)
Dozenten: Max Irmer, Anton Brokow-Loga |