Abstract
This exploratory paper presents an approach known as 'Design Imaginariums,' pop-up spaces based on speculative design principles and community driven cre-ative problem-solving to address systemic city-wide challenges. Drawing inspira-tion and insights from a one-day design sprint and a real-world prototype that fo-cused on mobility urban futures, these pop-up spaces serve as platforms to ac-tively involve citizens in the design process, prompting responsive ideas and rec-ommendations from city stakeholders. The paper begins by discussing the back-ground and motivations to initiate the research, elaborating on the City of Dun-dee’s aspirations for creating ecologically vibrant and socially inclusive urban spaces. It then outlines the research protocol and explores how Design Imaginar-iums can harness speculative thinking and community engagement to reimagine sustainable mobility. Finally, it discusses the capacity of imaginative scenarios to inform and influence policymaking and transformative change, emphasizing how Design Imaginariums might have something useful to offer the wider design re-search community.
Keywords
speculative design; sustainable mobility; futures; design imaginariums
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.288
Citation
Ballie, J., and Bruce, F. (2024) Reimagining sustainable mobility Futures: exploring design imaginariums for city-wide challenges, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.288
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Reimagining sustainable mobility Futures: exploring design imaginariums for city-wide challenges
This exploratory paper presents an approach known as 'Design Imaginariums,' pop-up spaces based on speculative design principles and community driven cre-ative problem-solving to address systemic city-wide challenges. Drawing inspira-tion and insights from a one-day design sprint and a real-world prototype that fo-cused on mobility urban futures, these pop-up spaces serve as platforms to ac-tively involve citizens in the design process, prompting responsive ideas and rec-ommendations from city stakeholders. The paper begins by discussing the back-ground and motivations to initiate the research, elaborating on the City of Dun-dee’s aspirations for creating ecologically vibrant and socially inclusive urban spaces. It then outlines the research protocol and explores how Design Imaginar-iums can harness speculative thinking and community engagement to reimagine sustainable mobility. Finally, it discusses the capacity of imaginative scenarios to inform and influence policymaking and transformative change, emphasizing how Design Imaginariums might have something useful to offer the wider design re-search community.