Beyond Flying Cars
The Masterclass on Co-Imagining Urban Mobility Futures
March 29 - 31, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
For many people mobility futures are still about flying cars, an idea that has been around for over 100 years. It is time to move beyond those old-fashioned, tech-driven imaginaries. Using speculative design tools and transition management, this Masterclass will focus on exploring different scenarios and strategies for change in the field of urban mobility, providing you with innovative and hands-on tools to create mobility futures that are realistic and worth living. Are you ready to imagine how we'll move in the future? Join us!
Day 1: Checking into the Future:
On the first day, the focus will be on transition management theory and the drivers needed to create and accelerate urban change. We will be joined by Derk Loorbach, Director at DRIFT and Professor of Socio-economic Transitions at the Faculty of Social Science at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Day 2: Exploring alternative futures
The second day will be about ‘futuring’ using a combination of speculative design and co-creation. This approach is not concerned with predicting the future, but exploring different scenarios and their consequences. We will be joined by Alice Haugh, Built Environment Programme Manager at Laudes Foundation.
Day 3: Connecting the dots
After two in-depth sessions over the previous days, the last session will focus on how to connect and apply the results of trend scanning, futuring and co-creation to real-life, current scenarios. The future is not written nor owned by anyone, so having frameworks and concrete tools is key to be part of the shaping of it.
Thinking about the future is less an exercise of predicting what’s next than a creative approach to dealing with uncertainty. Unfortunately, most images of the future tend to be in the hands of a very limited group of people, which leads to a poor creative process missing out on the opportunities of what democratising the future can offer.
What you can expect
Why is this course relevant for me?
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Update your knowledge with key trends influencing infrastructure and societal changes in urbanism in general and mobility in particular (get inspired by examples from all over the world...);
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Go beyond false oppositions (neighbourhood vs. big city) and sharpen your critical thinking;
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Get access and apply different methodologies that use future-thinking and design to bridge the gap between imagination and application;
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Learn how transition management can help you create change and translate ideas to actions.
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Became familiar with co-creation as a collaborative way to do strategic planning in the urbanism field.
Methodology and activities
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Short lectures to introduce key concepts and contextualise
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Keynote lectures featuring guest speakers from key stakeholder organisations and academic institutions
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Several guided workshops in a variety of formats
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Use of speculative design tools such as scenario matrix and speculative prototyping
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Design thinking applied to urban mobility: Ideation, Prototyping and Testing sessions, with the objective of testing the group’s conclusions and findings
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Site visits and guided tours in Rotterdam and surroundings
Meet the guest speakers
Alice Haugh, Built Environment Programme Manager at Laudes Foundation
Alice is a trained architect working on decarbonisation and the climate transition from a systemic level. With a focus on inclusion, regeneration and citizens, she drives transition forward by fostering stakeholder collaboration, coordinating policy-makers, industry professionals, finance and communities, with the ultimate goal of reducing the carbon emission levels of our built environment.
Derk Loorbach, Director at DRIFT and Professor of Socio-economic Transitions at the Faculty of Social Science, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Derk is one of the founders of the transition management approach as a new form of governance for sustainable development. He has over one hundred publications in this area and has been involved as an action researcher in numerous transition processes with government, business, civil society and science.
Participation Fees:​
Regular registration: € 1,250 (excl. VAT)
Non-for-profit organisations : € 950 (excl. VAT, limited spaces)
Students : € 800 (excl. VAT, limited spaces)
The price includes materials, and lunch for all three days.
Accommodation is not included.
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