Irregular Circularities – Futuring Workshop
As mould, we were invited to take part in the international Summercamp that took place in the framework of the Reallabors ZEKIWA Zeitz (RZZ).
Under the title ‘Irregular Circularities’, the summer camp aimed to bring together different viewpoints from a variety of perspectives, for example from local stakeholders, international designers, students, and experts from the urban community and the academic world. Through four thematic focal points – Soil, Energy, Air and Dreams – circularity and future transformation were explored in a particularly vivid way.
As part of the subgroup Energy, we hosted a collective dinner, delivered an input, engaged in a Futuring Workshop, using the Architecture is Climate cards—33 double-sided, risograph-printed prompts for action. Participants will be able to reflect on and respond to the prompts through their own experience and practice and the already made impressions within the summercamp. We encountered the specific sites and conditions across the ZEKIWA area and reacted to the previous days of thought. To be and act together. To sense what is possible. To understand that transformation is collective—and already underway.
Prompts for re-imagined futures
Futures are multiple; they already exist in the gaps in the present. This set of cards propose ways of thinking and acting in order to achieve climate justice. Go through their prompts and select the ones that seem relevant to your own work. Turn them around and find a short explanation to re-imagine ways to move forward. Neither a definitive list nor a set of instructions, the prompts are catalysts for rethinking relationships such as those between labour and economy, resources and policy, or infrastructures and culture in relation to climate breakdown. They can be used when you are stuck with a text, a project, a context, or any other dilemma, to direct your thinking in another way. They work best when they are not used in isolation. Use two. Use three. Use a bundle of them. This will help you to look at your project from a different perspective and support you in making choices for viable futures in the face of climate breakdown.
You can also find and shuffle the prompts on our website www.architectureisclimate.net in the futures section. There, each is linked to multiple resources, different background issues and relevant practices to give pointers of how such futures might be enacted, and to give confidence that you are not alone.
Images: Sarah Bovelett.
Drawing: Sofia Garcia.
