2050 Designing Our Tomorrow Architectural Design Series

2050: Designing Our Tomorrow describes the ways in which architecture and design can engage with the key drivers of change and provide affirmative aspirations for a not-so distant future. With a focal date of 2050, this issue of AD asks when and how the design community can, should, and must be taking action. The discussion centres on shifts in the urban environment and an established way of life in a world of depleted natural resources and climate change. Featuring interviews with Paola Antonelli of MoMA and Tim Brown of IDEO, it includes contributions from thought leaders, such as Janine Benyus, Thomas Fisher, Daniel Kraft, Alex McDowell, Franz Oswold, and Mark Watts. High-profile designers like FutureCitiesLab, SHoP, and UrbanThinkTank, are featured as examples of forward thinking and innovation in the field, highlighting the need for ? and possibility of ? a shift in the global perspective. The discussion includes the challenges we face in creating a positive tomorrow, and the solutions that architecture and design can bring to the table.

Despite the proliferation of global crises possibly threatening human survival, our current moment provides the opportunity to write a new, positive story about our future. 2050: Designing Our Tomorrow describes how the design community can contribute to that vision by asserting positive aspirations for the worlds we create ourselves.

• See how architects and designers inspire global positive change
• Consider architecture's role in shaping cultural outlook
• Learn the key drivers of change for the built environment
• Explore the perspectives of leading experts and designers

Architects and planners over the centuries have put a stamp upon the planet through the physical manifestations of their belief structures. Today's design community faces a rising wealth gap, climate change, shifting paradigms of nationalism, and myriad other challenges. 2050: Designing Our Tomorrow phrases global issues as a design problem, and describes how architects and designers can rise to the challenge of creating a more positive future.

Editorial 05
Helen Castle

About the Guest-Editor 06
Chris Luebkeman

Introduction: 2050 Can You Imagine … ? 08
Chris Luebkeman

Chapter 1 Designing a Graceful Ending: A Conversation with Design Luminary Paola Antonelli 20
Chris Luebkeman

Chapter 2 Prejudicial Narratives: Building Tomorrow’s World Today 26
Alex McDowell

Chapter 3 Design Is Our Answer: An Interview with Leading Design Thinker Tim Brown 34
Chris Luebkeman

Chapter 4 Welcome to the Third Industrial Revolution: The Mass-Customisation of Architecture, Practice and Education 40
Thomas Fisher

Chapter 5 After Architects: A Vision of the Near Future from SHoP 46
Philip Nobel

Chapter 6 Her, With the Hammer: A Mother’s Letter to Her Daughter 54
Emily Pilloton

Chapter 7You’re From, It’s Where You’re At 56
Mark Watts

Chapter 8 The Street As Platform: How Digital Dynamics Shape the Physical City 62
Dan Hill

Chapter 9 A Century of Ecological Innovation 68
Mitchell Joachim

Chapter 10 Sentient Futures The Hydra Trilogy by Future Cities Lab 74
Nataly Gattegno and Jason Kelly Johnson

Chapter 11 Interdependence: A Manifesto for Our Urban Future, Together 80
Lisa Gansky

Chapter 12 Healthy Humane Buildings 84
Karin Lepasoon

Chapter 13 Media Network: Three Moments From the Future Post-Manufacturing Supply Chain 88
Tim Maughan and Liam Young

Chapter 14 Empowering Communities Through Design 94
Francesca Galeazzi

Chapter 15 Heaven on Earth 98
Roberta L. Bondar

Chapter 16 El Sur Global: Future Resilient City 100
Alfredo Brillembourg, Hubert Klumpner and Alexis Kalagas

Chapter 17 Captain Nemo’s Dream 106
Enric Sala

Chapter 18 Bricked House: How Code and Law Can Lock You Out 110
Molly Wright Steenson

Chapter 19 Looking Back on a Radical Idea: The Buranest Cooperative Rural New Town, Amhara, Ethiopia 114
Franz Oswald

Chapter 20 The Generous City 120
Janine Benyus

Chapter 21 To a Curator of Beautiful and Healthy Lives: A Note to Myself 122
DaeWha Kang

Chapter 22 Counterpoint: The Art of Prediction 128
Charles Jencks

Contributors 134

About Architectural Design 136

Chris Luebkeman is Global Director of Foresight + Research + Innovation at Arup. He was educated as a geologist, structural engineer and architect. Prior to joining Arup in 1999, he taught in the Architecture departments of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), the University of Oregon, the Chinese University of Hong Kong  and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Over the past 15 years, Chris has lectured in over 30 countries on the future, sustainability and innovation, as well as on research at Arup. He is a member of Arup’s Design and Technical Executive which promotes the highest standards of design and technical skill, insuring Arup place as one of the world’s leading practitioners. He spends a lot of time advising how the driving forces of global change should be incorporated into more effective global business strategies.