Building Lego prototypesfor the city

…my latest experiment in Futures work

Emile HOOGE@ehooge

APF’s V-GATHERING FUTURES FESTIVALOctober 26, 2011

I STARTED WITH A FEW QUESTIONS…

Can we talk about the future of cities and avoid buzz words?

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

Can we think about the future from top down AND from bottom up?

Mandelbrot set

Can we produce futures work with social innovation, and reciprocally?

I WENT FOR AN EXPERIMENT…

Stage 1Gathering a group

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 4Putting 4 prototypes

together in a city

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

Stage 6Sharing insights and

foresights

The rule was: build something before you talk about it!

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)

… IT DID CHALLENGE SOME URBAN CONVENTIONSEmile HOOGE

@ehooge

Rose Biggin a.k.a. Banksy ;-)