Futures Garden - Blooming Seeds
Pioneering Policy Innovation through Speculative Design
At Futures Garden, we embark on a visionary journey to redefine policy-making for Europe's future. Our unique platform collaborates with leading futurists, innovative designers, and engaged EU citizens to delve into emerging trends and issues crucial for Europe's tomorrow. Our mission? To revolutionize policy creation by intertwining speculative design with creativity, empathy, and analytical insight.
Vision and Mission
At Futures Garden, we envision an Europe enriched by a diverse tapestry of potential futures, each path distinct with its own opportunities and challenges. Our mission is to collaboratively explore these possibilities, shaping Europe's tomorrow with futurists, designers, citizens and policymakers. Together, we're dedicated to actively crafting a future for Europe that's as dynamic and diverse as its people.
Discover the Futures Artefacts
Artefacts from the future bring to life potential scenarios, offering tangible starting points for in-depth and critical discussions. These artefacts encourage us to reimagine everyday life and society, delving into both their positive impacts and inherent challenges.
Dive into the future worlds unveiled by each artefact by selecting their titles in the gallery below. Discover, engage, and be inspired by the possibilities they present.
SYMBIOTIC
The film Symbiotic invites us to explore new ways of inhabiting the perception of other intelligent beings, to embody their experience, their sensory world, their “umwelt” – what they feel and how they think.
INWARDS
The animations of Inwards invite us to explore new practices and technologies that enhance self-reflection and sharing of emotions, thus helping shape our choices in life and nurture a renewed sense of togetherness.
Our Approach
Our four-step approach ensures a comprehensive and impactful exploration:
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We dive into cutting-edge ideas and emerging trends, identifying opportunities that could shape Europe's future.
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Our creative process transforms abstract concepts into tangible, thought-provoking scenarios, making future possibilities more accessible and engaging.
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We delve into the societal implications of these speculative scenarios, gathering diverse perspectives and insights from citizens of the EU.
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The final step involves analyzing the potential impact of these innovative ideas on policy-making, ensuring that future EU policies are forward-thinking, inclusive, and impactful.
Erica Bol - Architect Futures Garden at the EU Policy lab
"Futures Garden sparks innovative policy making by exploring possible futures in a pro active and co-creative way. "
Elahe Rajabiani - Head of Design at the EU Policy lab
“The Futures Garden is an exercise in collective dreaming for the future of our societies. It opens a new way of engaging with the futures that is more proactive, imaginative and hopeful.”
Maciej Krzysztofowicz - Foresight Futures Garden at the EU Policy lab
“Futures Garden makes imagination around emerging issues more rich and vivid, which is the first step to creating together good policies for the future.”
Partners
Further Research
Futures Garden explores alternative futures using fictional artefacts to inspire debate. It features two themes: "Dealing with future selves," focusing on new ways of being and technologies that enhance self-reflection and community, and "Extending human perception to new scales," which broadens our understanding of non-human intelligences and communication, encouraging a shift from human-centric views to a deeper appreciation of Earth's diverse life.
