Future Tense: Alternative Futures as a Design Method for Sustainability Transitions

Abstract

The limits of the modern lifestyle have been well established. What comes next? Design lacks a collective vision, or set of aspirational futures, to work towards. Increasing evidence suggests the transition towards a sustainable society must consist of sustainable lifestyles, designed and owned by individual people and communities. This research builds upon a set of lifestyle scenarios set in the year 2050, derived from the SPREAD 2050 and EUInnovatE projects, in order to explore the use of speculative methods to enable designers and future citizen-designers to reflect upon their practices and enact more radical change. The authors developed design workshops to examine the potential of speculative design applied in practice as a tool for systems change. The results have shown promise as a method for influencing a change in mindset amongst designers, and suggest opportunities for future research investigating how artefacts of change can create pathways towards a sustainable society.