Team
Vidit Jain
Suhani Chheda
Thanks to Vaidehi for photography and helping co-facilitate.
Walking as a
futures research
methodology
Design Futures
Workshop Design
Design Research
October 2025
What if as people walk, they
co-imagine the city's futurescape? Suhani and I conducted this "Futures Walk" inspired by Randy Lubin's "Walking the Future."
What if as people walk, they
co-imagine the city's futurescape? Suhani and I conducted this "Futures Walk" inspired by Randy Lubin's "Walking the Future."
We invited participants to enter a time vortex with a map, future viewfinder and some place prompt cards. The idea was simple, as we walk we build this collective imaginary of how the surroundings, systems and objects would have transformed 25 years from now.
We came through a vast range of provocations, from blurring of boundaries of formal and informal businesses to the future of negotiation in overly structured systems. We talked about memory, tactility and convenience in shopping experiences. "Would this make Chikkapete lose its personal touch?" People imagined legal structures turning digital but debated whether the final say would still rest with humans. "Would technologies like AI be able to handle the subjectivities of judicial processes?" People imagined future libraries expanding to accomodate a range of varied knowledge systems from virtual to physical, visual to multi-sensorial.
We ended with a lot of good feedback and learnings. Seeing this as a test run, it was super intriguing to see the interplay of embodied imagination and first hand multi-sensorial experiences informing the futuring process. Going ahead we had a bunch of insights and iteration ideas to explore further – walking as a futures research practice.
We came through a vast range of provocations, from blurring of boundaries of formal and informal businesses to the future of negotiation in overly structured systems. We talked about memory, tactility and convenience in shopping experiences. "Would this make Chikkapete lose its personal touch?" People imagined legal structures turning digital but debated whether the final say would still rest with humans. "Would technologies like AI be able to handle the subjectivities of judicial processes?" People imagined future libraries expanding to accomodate a range of varied knowledge systems from virtual to physical, visual to multi-sensorial.
We ended with a lot of good feedback and learnings. Seeing this as a test run, it was super intriguing to see the interplay of embodied imagination and first hand multi-sensorial experiences informing the futuring process. Going ahead we had a bunch of insights and iteration ideas to explore further – walking as a futures research practice.
The Participants:
