Nextropolis - Future Smart Cities
Speculative Research and Design
Timeline
February 2024 - April 2024
Role
Researcher and Designer
Team
Alina Chin
Djeylan Karadayi
Karen Sonego
Shreyas Pankaja Shivamallu
Trushant Narwani
Overview
Brief
We were given the task of exploring and reimagining the smart city, responding to the particular context and community of Spitalfields City Farm, in East London to explore what else a smart city could be, beyond efficiency, techno-centric, top-down and profit-driven visions.
Solution
We strayed away from a traditional solutionist mindset for this project. The goal was to research and learn the community's pain-points and areas of opportunities and explore a provocative and speculative future for which we designed an experience of the future of the farm.
Blog
One of the deliverables for this coursework was an individual blog covering the entire process of research and design for this project. If you would like to read the blog and go through each activity in detail, click here!
Brainstorming
We were heavily inspired by Dunne and Raby's speculative design which challenges assumptions about product roles and urges designers to embrace diverse perspectives. Exploring the brief as a team, we conducted a brainstorming session employing speculative techniques. Utilising methods like ‘What If...’ and ‘Speculative Headlines’, we aimed to transcend solutionism and generate imaginative ideas about the future. These were the general themes that we managed to come up with as a group.
This session got our creative juices flowing and it made us aware that we needed to visit the farm and experience it first-hand to get real insights about the farm and the community's values.
Research Workshop
In order to gain a deep understanding of the community's values, we planned a research workshop inviting the visitors and staff of the farm. We used participatory design approaches inspired by "Homo Ludens", to emphasise the importance of play in fostering inclusion and a non-competitive, fun atmosphere during the workshop.
The prompt, "Imagine a fantastic farm," aimed to elicit community values through play. Participants used coloured dot stickers to express their ideal farm layout while thinking aloud, followed by a "Golden Round” that encouraged the participants to imagine a superpower for their farm, furthering value elicitation and speculation.
We conducted a pilot before the workshop to refine the process and identify potential areas of improvement. The feedback informed adjustments enabling us to anticipate potential challenges including:
supporting overwhelmed or quieter participants
adapting to time constraints
facilitating paired participants
A two-person team facilitated the data collection process. This allowed the primary facilitator to engage fully with the participant, while a dedicated note-taker captured comprehensive observations, including time taken for the workshop. We mitigated an unforeseen participant discomfort factor by not positioning ourselves adjacent to the participant.
Data Analysis
Our workshop helped us get to the participants’ ethos and underlying motivations. A thematic analysis of the data revealed that most of their decisions in building a ‘farm of their dreams’ dealt with some of the following themes:
The identified values aligned with the farm's current objectives - to enhance educational opportunities and build a community that contributes to the farm's well-being. We set out to determine how these principles may serve as an anchor point for a technology-enabled smart city farm.
Project Ideation
During the ideation meeting, we realised that the farm was a place to experience joy and education for its community. We had a range of ideas, and many overlapped or complemented each other. We amalgamated several concepts to develop the farm into a sought-after destination, focusing on Community, Entertainment and Education. We aimed to position it as a destination, where nature provides the perfect backdrop to entertainment and learning at their own pace through technology. We created a breakdown of what in the not-too-distant future a visit to the farm could/would/should entail.
As this farm imposed high technological engagement in every step of the experience, it facilitated the backdrop for a debate on its future. Therefore, we implemented the idea as a speculative design “as a medium to aid imaginative thought” through a voting activity.
For the final presentation at the farm, our team incorporated authentic photographs from the farm alongside generative AI to produce hologram overlays. This rendered our proposed visiting experience more immersive. Additionally, we produced a video utilising to guide the audience through the journey.
At the end of the presentation, we shared arguments for and against the proposed experience prompting the audience to vote and give feedback. This showed people that their voices count to decide the future of the farm – whether they are in favour or against was irrelevant – what mattered was to provoke thoughts about the future and what they want it to be.
Reflection
Using speculation as critique for our final deliverable, allowed us to recognise futures not as mere destinations but as mediums to foster imaginative thought and speculation. The voting experience prompted a re-evaluation of our "Future Farm" concept. Farm staff highlighted the importance of maintaining a tech-free space, concerned about hindering children's imagination through technology. Additionally, the talking holograms could cause confusion about real animal interaction. This highlighted the challenge of balancing technology integration with the natural experiences.