Speculative Futures : Design Approaches to Navigate Change, Foster Resilience, and Co-Create the Citie S We Need

How the emerging field of speculative futures can help us dream—and build—better, sustainable, and more equitable cities for everyone. Speculative futures—design approaches that help us visualize new and potential worlds—move us beyond what currently exists into what could one day be. Inspired by art, film, fiction, and industrial design, they use speculation to provoke, imagine, and dream into what lies ahead. Written for futurists, urbanists, and artists looking to enact city-wide transformation—and for readers at the intersection of disruption, design, innovation, and city living—this book offers creative paths toward urban resilience, using design tools that already exist. Artist and urbanist Johanna Hoffman uses an interdisciplinary lens informed by her experience in architecture, art, engineering, and construction to examine how we can reimagine our cities at every level: as individuals, in community, and on a professional scale. Hoffman blends precedent studies, compelling research, and professional memoir, connecting urban development issues with the processes and actions best positioned to create better solutions for our cities. The result is a dynamic field guide that uses speculative futures to imagine, advocate for, and adapt to modern scales, scopes, and speeds of change. While this book is of great utility to professionals in the urban design and planning industries, it’s also for people who resist received, capitalistic, technocratic ways of thinking—readers who seek new solutions to old problems with anti-colonial, living-systems-oriented lenses. How the emerging field of speculative futures can help us imagineand buildbetter, resilient, and more equitable cities. Speculative futures design approaches that visualize new and potential worlds move us beyond what currently exists into the realms of what could be. Inspired by art, film, fiction, and industrial design, the tools use speculation to provoke, imagine, and dream into what lies ahead. Written for futurists, urbanists, and artists looking to enact city-wide transformationand for readers at the intersection of disruption, design, and city livingthis book offers creative paths toward urban resilience, using design tools that already exist. Informed by her years of experience in art, urban design, and architecture, artist and urbanist Johanna Hoffman uses an interdisciplinary lens to examine how we can reimagine our cities as individuals, as communities, and on professional scales. Hoffman's blend of precedent studies, research, and professional memoir link longstanding issues in urban development with the processes and actions positioned to create the more resilient cities this century demands. The result is a dynamic field guide that uses speculative futures to imagine, advocate for, and adapt to modern scales, scopes, and speeds of change. This book is both for professionals in the urban design and planning industries, as well as all people who resist received, capitalistic, technocratic ways of thinkingreaders who seek new solutions to old problems. "This dynamic field guide describes how speculative futures-design approaches used to visualize and respond to what lies ahead-can help us build more sustainable and equitable cities for everyone"-- Provided by publisher