'Future Scenario' Brainstorming

In order to get my creative juices flowing about possible 'Future Scenarios' I first calculated how old I would be in 10 year increments from now, as you can see below:

• 2020 = 31
• 2030 = 41
• 2040 = 51
• 2050 = 61
• 2060 = 71
• 2070 = 81
• 2080 = 91
• 2090 = 101

The dates and ages highlighted in purple are dates that I believe offer the most potential with regard to where I will be in terms of my career, health and family, possible technological advancements and current societal growth and change. It is a strong belief of mine that people not only of our contemporary social and class status (ie. middle to upper class, professional living in Australia) but possibly other less developed countries (at the moment) will live longer in the future due to technological, scientific and medical advancements.

So, at the age of 51 in the year 2040, I could be at retirement age, or merely reaching the peak of my professional career (where I'll have enough experience, however I will still be reasonably young and active of both mind and body). I could have a family and grandchildren, middle to upper class (depending on well my career has been going) and my parents could hopefully still be around (either living independently or in aged care facilities). Thinking about my parents at this time, and also when I'm 91 in 2080, got me thinking about what will happen to the elderly in the future? The cities and even suburbs will be densely populated, so where could we house the elderly and how will they be cared for with regard to possible future technologies? Are they going to be able to adapt? I hope to be able to answer some of these questions in later blogs, if I decide to follow this area up.

After deciding upon the year 2050, it was necessary to start brainstorming with regard to the areas of:

• Climate
• Population
• Politics
• Technology
• Environement

The following images convey the results of this brainstorming session, with summaries included at the end.



 Climate:

• World-wide "Tropical" climate would mean a total re-design of existing built environment, and retro-fitting for adaptation to new climate as there would be a heavy rain season over a long period of time, frequent cyclones, increased humidity and spread of disease, and rainforest environments. A whole new vernacular could be used world-wide.
• Vertical Cities would mean vertical and horizontal movement and therefore no need for cars as travellators, elevators etc could be used instead (electrical too-cut greenhouse emissions), higher densities on less land, protection from elements and a possibly hostile environment. Waste disposal would need some very deep thought though-alot of potential
• Protective Buildings from hostile forces (living or environmental)-shells and barriers.
• Water Storage/Melting Facilities
• Flora and Fauna Preservation Facilities
• Air Purifying Facilities
• Underwater Living and Communities

Population:

• Smaller dwellings-indivual or couple sizes
• Changeability-multiple uses of the one space or building-alot of potential
• Connectivity-infrastructure and access to amenitites
• Promotion and utilisation of other renewable enery sources
• Aged-care Facilties

Politics:

• Nuclear War-protection form and a place to wait out aftermath
• Camouflage-invisible architecture-alot of potential
• Extreme Climates-desert, ice-caps, oceans, volacnoes (need to think about food and water sources)
• Communist Government (positive or negative)
• Environmentalist Government (positive)

Technology:

• Gravity Change-tilt of Earth due to an impact, or living in space
• Interactive Houses/Buildings-alot of potential
• Prisons and Asylums-interesting
• Advances in materials, allowing to build in hostile and previously impossible locations which would combat desnsity issues

Environment:

• Catalogues of Native Species-alot of potential
• Personal Food Production
• Community Gardens (would first need to define what 'Future' community would look like)
• "Noah's Ark"
• Relocation of certain communities and nations (to provide habitat for fauna)

I need to await for further direction as to what this project requires before distilling these ideas further.