A phenomenological observation of daily life in different conditions

1) Learn how to explore future scenarios

2) Learn a methodology by which to document and assess future living scenarios

Designing for the future is never easy. It is becoming even more difficult in a world of such heightened uncertainty and unpredictability.

Lab Session Preparation

This exercise is designed to provide you with an understanding of the possible living conditions in the future so as to allow you to envisage solutions that could be interesting and inspirational.

Consider living with no single use plastic

Consider living with a limited amount of weekly water…

Maps of the “plastic continent”, the garbage patches of floating plastic debris in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans big as whole countries, give a new dimension to the accumulation of tons of non degradable waste. The recent news of the presence of micro-particles of plastic in tap water, fish, and even glaciers, is making very clear that decomposing plastic material is omnipresent, ending up in the air, in the water we drink and in our food chain.

Staring at those images and reading the unfathomable numbers (165 million tons of plastic pollution in the sea, 480 billion plastic drinking bottles sold in 2016, 300 million tons of plastic produced per year) it is hard not to look at the packaging we bring back home, the products we purchase, the bottles we drink from, and wonder if there are ways to reduce our own plastic waste. Many of us are looking for actions we can take as individual households beyond putting plastic items in the recycle bins, but feel it is important to understand which are the main issues and what are the best strategies to address them. …

The concern about the consequences of global warming is quietly nagging us even if we rarely talk about it. Most people try to tackle their anxiety with their own personal strategies to reduce their footprint.

Last week I asked the audience of TEDx LakeComo to jot down how concerned they were about climate change on a scale of 1 to 10. Two thirds of the 432 respondents wrote a number between 7 and 10.

As visions for Smart Cities gather momentum it is becoming clear that one of the major goals of urban areas will be to use data and technology to optimise the administration of cities’ resources and assets. But what is the role of Smart Citizens? Will they also be using urban assets in a new way, or are they cast in the role of consumers and producers of data? Smart Citizens are already around us and are relating to their cities’ resources differently and innovatively. They can thus help us anticipate what could become mainstream practices in a few years.

Urban…