Future Observatory Journal
The catalogue for a show about architect Anupama Kundoo frames her work through the concept of abundance. This emphasis on craftsmanship and local materials is one that is finding resonance all over the globe
Africa’s secondhand clothing markets provide millions of consumers with upcycled and customised garments. Unlike Western fast-fashion, this circular model offers a blueprint for achieving more with less. Could the circular economy be the continent’s comparative advantage?
The dawn of infinite clean energy is beckoning, but we still have the problem of finite matter. What if energy ‘too cheap to meter’ means that we can finally close material loops, even for the mother of all problems: plastics
Because of its frenzied cycles of demolition and rebuilding, Brussels has been at the forefront of reimagining the role of the architect – from pure designer to master of salvage. It’s one hopeful outcome in a city where every site is a ghost story
This forecast presents abundance not as excess or accumulation, but as access to and distribution of knowledge, materials and capacities. In a four-part story set in a flourishing future, this interpretation of abundance is illustrated with real-life case studies that show alternative models already taking root
On Being Inside Gaia
The anthropologist turned the matsutake mushroom into a hero of theory, and her work has become a touchstone for designers looking to find new life in the ruins of modernity. Here Tsing discusses the radical arts of noticing, and her excitement about design that engages with the more-than-human world – as long as it anticipates its feral effects
In a quiet suburb of southwest Berlin lies a building that looks like the foreboding lair of a comic book villain.
In his 1974 text ‘What is it like to be a bat?’, philosopher Thomas Nagel grappled with questions of consciousness and the impossibility of truly experiencing the world as other species do. Drawing on their multispecies speculations, designers Dunne & Raby provide a new reading of his work today
This forecast shares a vision for the future of design as attentive, collaborative and nurturing to our more-than-human world. It presents four propositions for designers to re-think and rebuild our relationship with more-than-humans.
Fibershed is building regenerative textile practices from Northern California to Sri Lanka. What are the obstacles to taking a local system global?
Since his ground-breaking book Designs for the Pluriverse, Arturo Escobar has been applying his thinking to a bioregional transition project in the Cauca Valley, south-west Colombia. In this extended interview with our editor, Justin McGuirk, Escobar traces the overlaps between thinking bioregionally and pluriversally, and how they enable us to transition to a new story of the world
A new piece of EU legislation will dramatically increase mining for rare earth metals across the continent, securing supply chains but damaging landscapes. What happens when we are confronted with the material realities of our consumptive lifestyles?
Reflecting on the friction between hard political boundaries and the blurry edges of bioregions
This forecast presents a vision for the future of design. Working with researchers across disciplines, we propose alternative systems, strategies and possibilities for remaking our world.