RFP 2 - Context — Design Futures Forum

WHAT IS THE DESIGN FUTURES STUDENT FORUM?
Design Futures Forum is a 5-day convening to reimagine the role of the designer in transforming human and ecological exploitation in the built environment towards liberation. 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 together.

DESIGN FUTURES STUDENT AUDIENCE

Design Futures students are and will be 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 call for proposals, 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 2026 are as follows:

Spatial Justice in Detroit

Participants will learn from Detroit leaders about the history of spatial injustices in Detroit and the work being done to center Black and Indigenous futures on this land.

Disrupt, Dismantle, Destroy: A Racism Untaught Workshop

Participants will understand their own positionality in the context of different forms of oppression, examine their own socio-cultural narrative, and create strategies that call them (and all of us) to action. The question that guiding this learning journey is, How does the awareness of ones social identity express their understanding of positionality as it relates to their design practice? How does this impact their design decisions?

Make People FEEL: Speculative Fiction as a Tool for Healing and Joy

In recent years, Octavia Butler’s work has become a guiding light for many, offering models of intentional living even in dire times. Among her journal entries, one note stands out: “Tell stories filled with facts. Make people touch and taste and KNOW. Make people FEEL!” This workshop invites participants to use speculative fiction as a tool for collective healing and joyful possibility. How might connection counteract chaos? How might care and play supplant anxiety? Rooted in the power of speculative fiction, equitable design research and trauma-informed social work practices, participants will leave with tangible practices and a renewed commitment to designing for healing, inclusion, and liberatory futures.