Architecture can be utilised to speculate how things could be. It can envision alternatives, inspire action, and redefine our relationship with potential futures. Continuous adaptation is an integral design attribute that needs to be included for futures design. In the next 100 years, we will have different requirements for heating and cooling, water and food resources, and social engagement. Therefore designing for mutability is imperative. For example, 2050 will more than likely see hot and dry summers in Europe, where 2080 will have hot and wet climate (IPCC 2021). The systems used need to be replaceable, adaptable, and adjustable. This temporal far futures thinking mimics the potential adaptive capabilities of a building, a neighbourhood, or a city.
A level of speculation is usually present in design. When dealing with wicked problems, it can promote reliance upon assumptions, and help the designer to move forward without all the facts. Design can sometimes attempt to predict the future, which has been proven to be a waste of time. Instead, design can focus on the idea of possibility, and potential futures. These provocational moves can interrupt the present and open up discussions on what kind of future people want. When using design to look at futures alongside climate change, and the various disciplines involved in moving away from disaster and towards idealism, an intentional simplification of the ‘problem’ at hand is necessary. Designers are not, therefore, concerned with the present and describing what is now, rather they are concerned with change and looking forward. Futurologist Stuart Candy presented a diagram at the Design Interactions program at the Royal College of Art in 2009, that explained how potential future scenarios might be envisioned. He split this into the Possible, Plausible, Probable and Preferable futures. Possible futures are imaginings that are somewhat difficult to understand how we would get there. They are possible – however they are usually a space inhabited by cinema, art and writing. The next cone is the Plausible, this is the space where what ‘could happen’ lies, if there were big shifts and movements in government, society and behaviours. The comes the Probable, this is a somewhat expected future, that does not include an uprising of any kind. This, unfortunately, is where a lot of design rests, which is not suitable when formulating proposals for climate action and change. This type of action would be suited to the Preferable. The Preferable sits within the Plausible and the Probable, and pushes the boundaries towards something that is visionary yet realistic, ideal yet grounded, and imaginative yet feasible. Beyond this diagram lies fantasy. Something that has a place when imagining futures, however is relatively futile in discussions on provocative, yet earnest design.
Anthropogenic action has meant that speculative provocational architecture has never been more crucial. It is imperative to question current practice, and explore new architectural methods. Architectural provocations investigate current shortfalls and propose an alternative future, framing a narrative of how we culturally shift to these ideals. It disrupts order to critically engage with how things are and more importantly how things could be. Radical imaginings of architectural futures were particularly popular in the 1960s and 1970s, with rebellion studios such as Archigram, Archizoom, Superstudio and Ant Farm. The visionary provocations created by these designers criticised the present and looked towards an alternative approach, embracing the extremes.
Architects have a skill that not all designers hold. A problem with imagining futures is transforming the invisible into something tangible. Architects have a spatial relationship with the imagined, and have the ability to communicate the abstract. They can think spatially, and communicate ideas through drawings, diagrams, models and sketches. Architects have a particular calling to the duty of conveying and visualising imagined futures. These tangible moments serve as a catalyst for change, a movement towards action in the present to enable a better future.