WHAT IS THE DESIGN FUTURES STUDENT FORUM?
Design Futures Forum (DFF) creates education and community building spaces that reimagine the role of the designer towards community power. We are inspired by practices of Design Justice, Just Transition, and transformative justice. Each year, approximately 70 students from 14 different universities come together with faculty and leading practitioners in the field to dive deep on spatial justice and community-based design. Our aim is to provide a space for rigorous learning, radical imagination, and caring relationships that models the world we seek to build.
DESIGN FUTURES STUDENT AUDIENCE
Design Futures students are leaders in community-driven design and spatial justice. Sometimes student participants are enrolled in programs where they are studying built environment disciplines such as planning, architecture, landscape architecture, real estate, or urban design. Some students come from other design and visually-oriented disciplines, including fine art, illustration, graphic design, interaction design, etc. Students from programs such as social work, public health, urban studies, anthropology, sociology, engineering, and business also participate, often bringing specific approaches from their disciplines. Design Futures participants are primarily selected by their schools and are all enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programs. Students come with varied levels of experience and exposure to the topics addressed in Design Futures workshops. Practitioners and university faculty often also participate in sessions, though students remain the focus audience.
CONTEXT: THE DESIGN FUTURES CURRICULUM
While not part of this RFP, the Design Futures Core is a critical track in the program. It will provide the foundational knowledge mentioned above and will be taught by an invited group of leading practitioners. The courses planned to be taught as part of core curriculum in 2027 are as follows: