This session brought together Maurits’ students to share how futures thinking and speculative design expanded their creative practice, and how it enabled them to explore diverse futures, understand the motivations behind future-oriented work, and challenge conventional narratives about what lies ahead.
Empowering young creatives
The projects featured in this session were developed in the SDM Futures Lab, an initiative created in partnership with the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies and its UNESCO Chair in Anticipatory Leadership and Futures Capabilities. By combining lectures with hands-on experimentation and co-creation with industry practitioners, the lab equips students to navigate a rapidly evolving world by integrating futures studies with design practice to map possibilities and prototype future-oriented concepts.
Agency over anxiety
Through short presentations on themes such as the future of cities, education, and agriculture, students reflected on how they used participatory foresight methods to respond with innovative proposals for both near and distant futures.
Together, their voices offered a vivid glimpse into how the next generation is applying futures design to build more inclusive, adaptable, and transformative visions for the world, acting as agents of change.
