Future Casting

Justyna Karakiewicz

Studio Description

Future Casting Studio is a multidisciplinary studio where you will collaborate with urban design students to explore future‑casting: developing grounded visions of what may emerge, rather than predicting a single inevitable future. Harnessing AI, together with the growing volume and diversity of computable data and increasingly powerful computing, the studio will work at the limits of current knowledge. While imagining conditions 75 years from now may seem difficult, advances in data analytics, computer modelling and simulation will help us better understand the present and trace its plausible trajectories. Future‑casting is a strategic method that combines trends, evidence and imagination to examine multiple possible futures and inform present‑day decisions. The studio will centre on reflective conversations with AI, peers and external critics, continually asking what kinds of futures we want to bring into being, and you will receive technical support from AI experts throughout.

Studio Outcomes

By the end of the semester, you will be able to identify key forces shaping cities today, including climate trends, demographic shifts, technological change, political dynamics, and cultural values, and respond to them with innovative design strategies. You will be able to come up with new building typologies, that can slowly transform and adapt to rising water level, or seasonal flooding.

You will deepen your understanding of how AI can support your work, while critically examining its limitations, risks, and ethical implications. You will explore how small differences in decisions or external shocks can produce distinct yet coherent futures, and you will practice building divergent scenarios that share a common present but branch into multiple possibilities. You will also develop skills for working in a multidisciplinary team, learning to draw on different forms of expertise and to communicate your ideas clearly. Above all, you will participate in a studio environment that encourages experimentation, collaboration, and a genuinely creative experience.

Studio Leader

Professor Justyna KARAKIEWICZ, BArch(Hon), AA Dip, PhD, MSAI, RIBA, FRSA, trained as an architect at the Architectural Association. She taught at the Architectural Association, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College, London and The University of Hong Kong. Currently Professor at The University of Melbourne. She has exhibited her work at Royal Academy, London (6 times), Venice Biennale (3 times), New York, Kyoto, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Beijing, Sydney and some twenty other venues. Her successes in international competitions include: First Prizes in: Gateway to Mecca Crystal Palace Solar Housing Competition; Dunkerque Waterfront; Swansea Working Men’s Club; First Prize at Royal Academy Summer Exhibition for the best drawing; Honourable Mention and prize in Asia Front Village 39th Central Glass International Architectural Design Competition; Honourable Mention in Modern Saudi House Design Competition; Honourable Mention in eVolo Annual Skyscraper Architectural Competition; First prize for Spinney Garden project completed 20 years ago, Housing Design Awards 2008 Historic Awards; Second Prize in the Austral Bricks Design Ideas Competition, Honourable Mention Chimelong Ocean Resort. Justyna has published over 60 papers, 16 book chapters and three books: The Making of Hong Kong (2010), Promoting Sustainable Living: Sustainability as an Object of Desire (2015) and Urban Galapagos (2019).

Readings & References

• To be advised in class

Schedule:
Monday 9am-3pm

Off-site Activities:

Contact Handbook