SF 2122

What could the San Francisco of 2122 be like?

Cities change.

What did San Francisco looked like in 1922? What looks familiar and what looks different? What surprises you?

What do you think caused the changes you observe?

Watch this piece about cities and and their evolution.

Consider:

What factors led to the establishment of our earliest cities?
How did the Industrial Revolution change the roles and needs of cities?
How has automated changed, and will continue to change, our cities?
What are so factors cities need to consider moving forward?
This video was published in 2019. What post-pandemic factors might cities need to consider?

Think about San Francisco in particular...

In what ways is San Francisco well positioned to meet the challenges of the future for all San Franciscans?
What are some specific challenges San Francisco faces? How might we face those challenges? Who is most impacted by these challenges?
What aspects of San Francisco are essential to preserving its character?

Your Assignment:

Identify one particular challenge you see as barrier to San Francisco thriving in the year 2122.
Sketch a solution to challenge. This may be done digitally or on paper.
Build a detailed model of this solution. How might you make the model interactive?
Share your solution through a video you create.

Build Requirements:

One of the biggest challenges San Francisco faces is our space limitations. We have space limitations in our CREATE space too. Your model must fit within a 12" cube of space.

A Design Process

There are many versions of a design process with many different names. At Brandeis, we use this Ethical Creativity model. It asks us to begin in Awe and Wonder - appreciating what is wonderful in what we love before we go to improve on it. Then we enter a learning phase where we ask questions, research, clarify our problem, and entertain MANY possible solutions, then we enter a prototype and test cycle - this may take a while as we go back and forth between prototyping and testing, finally we share our final prototype with a wider audience. Throughout the process we take moments to reflect and take an ethical pause - on both our design process and the direction our design is heading - meditating on the who, what, why, and how of our process and solution.

Phase 1 - Awe and Wonder

We'll use a visualization and journaling activity to focus in on what we love and value about our city.

Phase 2 - Learning and Discovery (Ask Questions, Define Challenge, Brainstorm)

Focus in on a broad issue you are interested in addressing. Learn as much as you can about that topic.
Narrow your focus. Build a HMW (how might we) statement to help you narrow your focus.
Think of lots and lots of ideas to solve your specific challenge. Celebrate all ideas at first as bad ideas can have good ideas hidden inside them.

Phase 3 - Prototype and Test

Decide on a solution you wish to pursue.
Build a model solution for something large scale or an at-scale prototype. These needs to be something that can be examined or tested. It needs to be interactive.
Test your model/prototype, What's working? What needs improvement? What did you forget? What is not needed?
Go back to your model/prototype. Apply what you discovered while testing.
Test again.
Repeat steps 3-5 as needed.

Phase 4 - Share

Get your idea out there! Make a presentation, video, podcast, and/or poster.
Consider who to share it with and the best way to reach them.