Learning By Doing

Year | 2024

Location | Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico

Client | Learning By Doing Project

Imagining the ‘Good Life 2050’ in Guadalajara, Mexico and beyond by envisioning an optimistic life for an environmentally and socially sustainable future, with a 1.5 - 2° increase in temperature.

Brief

LbD (Learning By Doing) is a non-profit governmental organisation that works by imaging visions of the “good life” in hyper-localised settings around the world. Their mission is to use these visions to engage policymakers in climate action by providing an aspirational and appealing future which can define the appropriate trajectory to contain global temperature rise to a 1.5 - 2° maximum. LbD has contacted University of Sheffield Live Projects to create a 2050 vision of the good life in Guadalajara, Mexico - a country that has continually struggled to meet the climate goals outlined from the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Intentions

By fusing together “Learning By Doing”’s methodology of continuous learning, and the Live Project's "Liveness" philosophy of emphasising co-production, the response to the brief emerges as a shared vision of the 2050 Good Life in Guadalajara rather than one that is imposed upon the context. In addition to the practical use of the 2050 ‘good life’ visions in appealing to policymakers, the collaborative design process and shared learning experience between LbD and the Live Project also sheds light on reimagining the role of architects and designers in relation to policy in light of the climate crisis.

Process
Visioning the ‘good life’ was a process of simultaneous iteration. This involved research on climate and culture, testing methods of graphical visualisation, and workshopping with different stakeholders to create an accessible vision of the ‘good life’ that is true to its local context. The insights gained from various modes of engagement were digested into ideas and common iconography that was familiar to a wider audience. The visions produced the illustrated narrative of a ‘good life’ in 2050 Guadalajara, Mexico, given the future local climatic conditions.

Outputs
The core output developed with LbD is defined as “an appealing piece of artwork with an architectural core” which can inspire future collaborations with other designers as well as policymakers. This is composed of the tapestry - a large illustration weaving together different bottom-up climate interventions, blended with familiar elements that depict the ‘good life’ - and the threads - key elements of the tapestry that focus on imagining this ‘good life’ at human scale. Together they create an aspirational narrative of Guadalajara Mexico in 2050, even with a 1.5 - 2° temperature rise and climate change.

This Live Project questioned how architects/designers can play a role in imagining sustainable urban futures, shedding light on the necessity of architects in addressing climate policy. Alongside these visuals are two guides. Firstly the methodology guide; a reflective guide detailing processes and challenges for LbD to reference in future visual collaborations. Secondly the handover guide; this expands the outputs as a learning tool for future LbD collaborations with other designers. By being able to repeat the process of creating visuals with others, a lasting method for promoting climate action is fabricated - providing use long after the immediate project timeline has ended.

Credits

Student Team: 

Yuka Ho, Rebecca Wood, Mohammad Avn Naeem, Asu Amca, Hannah Knight, Samuel Smith, Eloisa De Gracia, Eleanor-Rose Parsons, Timothy Girgis, Zhuohao Zhang

Mentor:

Anthony Powis