FUTURE STRUCTURES
Statement of Inquiry: Through innovation, design can function to solve global issues in a sustainable way
Global Context: Globalisation and sustainability
Key & Related Concepts: Global Interactions, Function & Innovation
ATL Skills: Critical and creative thinking
Future Structures is a Three Dimensional Design initiative presented to Grade 10 pupils, aimed at stimulating critical inquiry into present-day living environments and envisaging potential future spatial requirements. Students are prompted to contemplate both the existing spaces we inhabit and those we may aspire to inhabit in the future. Encouraged to align their ideas with a chosen United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, students craft speculative designs geared towards addressing pertinent societal challenges.
The student responses to this project exhibit a diverse range of imaginative solutions, spanning from modular and communal housing concepts to innovative sea defense structures and even floating agricultural platforms. Witnessing students actively engage in such thought-provoking discourse is truly inspiring.
Student poster/info boards are created as an option for a final outcome. These are printed for peer review.
A example of the design phase in a student portfolio.
Basic paper and card models are created to help communicate ideas and test functions where possible.
Some students create physical prototypes as well as or instead of CAD designs to present as their final proposal.
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ALTERNATIVE OUTCOMES
I recently completed a similar project whereby students were asked to create an architectural space that would be located on Lazarus Island, a small island off of the coast of Singapore that is currently being developed for tourism. Instead of creating a physical model, students were asked to create a brochure that would advertise their proposed design to prospective investors. There was an emphasis on methods of communication and design language. The project culminated in a group exhibition and students provided peer feedback for one another.
