DESIGN 231 BLOG 2: SPECULATIVE DESIGN

SPECULATIVE DESIGN

WHAT IS SPECULATIVE DESIGN?

Mitrović, I. (2015), Introduction to Speculative Design Practice [Diagram]

Speculative design is a design practice that focuses on possibilities beyond existing design methodology. Unlike conventional design methods, speculative design removes the boundary between different fields and allows the designer to explore scenarios outside existing works and realities (Mitrović, 2015). Its interdisciplinary characteristic enables designers to link up with other professional fields and find possible solutions for alternative futures. By speculating on both desirable and undesirable outcomes, this approach allows the audience to rethink the underlying structure of contemporary society and provokes further change on the existing issues that could lead to one of the possible future assumptions.

The uniqueness of speculative design is that it does not confine the designers to a particular aspect of one problem. The speculative design allows the designers to detach themselves from a commercial and marketing-based context and utilize their imagination to fabricate a possible future from current socio-political issues. It mainly involves two concepts: speculate the future with a critical lens and design a future that questions recent technological development. This design approach resembles contemporary art's creation process; designers get their inspiration from literature, films, artworks, and pop culture. And then, designers organize their inspiration sources to create an imaginary scenario that reflects present issues, connecting the current world with the possible situations. The combination of reality and imagination make speculative design stands out and intrigues the audience to participate in the process.

The strength of the speculative design is that it has the potential to advocate revolutionary changes in the current society. It is a medium to peak into a viable future, and its storytelling nature expands its publicity and opens up discussions on opportunities that are unforeseen. Speculative design's radical and inspiring mindset allows designers to re-examine the present moment and design for an equal and sustainable future. And for recent years, multiple industries have gradually adopted speculative design as a source of innovation. Organizations like NATO and Visa hire sci-fi writers and designers to collaborate on their products and strategies (Ho Tran, 2019). This example is evidence of an application of how could speculative design could be incorporated into the socio-economic frameworks while maintaining its creativity.

Speculative design allows designers to look into problems with a broad scope. However, several drawbacks make it a design method that is not so widely accepted. Because design nowadays is commercially based and mostly profit-driven, speculative design is not as highly demanded as problem-solving designs in the market. The lacking of market force is one of the reasons why speculative design has not become a mainstream design mode. In addition, speculative design focus on the possibilities that do not exist in the present time, which means it is a high-risk method because there is a chance that the particular imaginary situation will not become a reality. Besides the risky side, it is very easy for speculative design projects to become too "Euro-centric" and pessimistic, creating designs that are too detached from reality and ignoring the situations that have already become a reality in the rest of the world.

CASE STUDY: THE LINE

Neom(2022), What is THE LINE?[Video]

This is an urban construction project by NEOM in Saudi Arabia. The Line project proposed a possible scenario of what a near-future city might look like. According to the company, the line is a city that can accommodate nine million people at once. The width of the city will be 200 meters wide, 170 meters long, and 500 meters high above sea level. This means that the city's area will only be 34 square kilometers due to its vertical composition, this saves a lot of the surface area and elevates the building efficiency. The project aims to build a city that will include the essential infrastructures of metropolitan cities. Public transportation lets citizens get anywhere in the city within 20 minutes. On top of that, all the energy sources that the city use will be clean energy, and the city is designed to have a natural ventilation system so that there will be 0 carbon footprint.

Rendering Image from Neom

The overall goal of this design is to promote a sustainable way of living. The idea of constructing a city in a vertical composition is bold and has never been seen before. If this project is implemented, it will fundamentally change the future of urban planning. This concept gives us a peak into one of the possible solutions for today's highly polluted and overpopulated cities. One strength of this design is that it did not just stay as an imaginary concept. It might have the chance to become a reality. Investors around the globe have already invested a decent amount of funds in supporting the project.

However, it is an interesting yet controversial project. Firstly, some of the features that were mentioned in the video are temporarily impossible to build with today's engineering technology. Plus, It could become dystopian for some people because of the vertical composition. Critics said it could become a sci-fi movie scene where some people fight for a place to live at the bottom of the city and yet rich and privileged people got to live on the top of the city. This concept somehow reminds me of Hong Kong's Kowloon Walled City. It was a building block composed of various individual blocks of building, the area was barely a hundredth of a square mile but had more than 33,000 residents living in there (Crawfrood, 2020). To some extent, the city did provide shelter for these people who are not able to afford the sky-high housing prices. But the living conditions and hygiene conditions are worrying and were eventually demolished in 1997. And THE LINE city could become another Kowloon Walled City. I choose this design as a case study because I think it reflects both strengths and limitations of this design practice at the same time.

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REFERENCES

Neom (Ed.). (2022). The line. THE LINE. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://www.neom.com/en-us/regions/theline

Mitrović, I. (2017, February 12). Introduction to Speculative Design Practice. Speculative. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://speculative.hr/en/introduction-to-speculative-design-practice/

Ho Tran, T. (2019, April 8). Speculative design: 3 examples of design fiction. Inside Design Blog. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/speculative-design/

Crawford, J. (2021, July 7). The strange saga of kowloon walled city. Atlas Obscura. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/kowloon-walled-city