Material cultures

Arup’s exploratory programme showcases case studies, speculative fiction and a publication guiding us towards a regenerative materials transition.

Brining together experts across Arup and the industry, I orchestrated a collaboration to rethink what the future of materials could look like for the built world. I designed a process where a team collectively wrote speculative fiction alongside rigorous research papers, and used film and visualisations to make our provocations tangible.

I advocated for our work across different audiences, and used our research to inspire new clients and win new work. As part of the research, the Foresight team explored what Material Cultures look like in the context of regenerative futures and what it takes for cities to become circular.

The work has travelled to Dubai Future Forum where I delivered a workshop, and to exhibitions at Singapore Design Week and Hong Kong.

Designing artefacts for the futures we imagine helps to make them tangible. I introduced experiential futures as a practice to explore and test the research we were undertaking.