Contemporary Material and Technological Culture
Imagining Future(s)
A collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Imaging Futures is a design research programme connecting past and future through sketching, archival analysis, and multidisciplinary dialogue, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci and Norman Foster’s creative and intellectual legacies.
Summary
Imaging Futures was an intensive one-week programme (17–21 February 2020) hosted by the Norman Foster Foundation in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Drawing inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci and Norman Foster, the initiative explored how sketching can link past, present, and future in design thinking. Students engaged with archival materials—Nomos Desking System, Hampstead House, Stansted Airport—to develop new design proposals across three scales. The programme included seminars on architecture, philosophy, and environmental science, and culminated in a public review of student work. Mentorship was provided by Ingrid Paoletti and Ignacio Vicens, among others.
17 February – 21 February 2020
Norman Foster Foundation + Politecnico di Milano + Universidad Politécnica de Madrid The programme emphasised the potential for sketching to fuel a continual dialogue between past, present and future, while existing as a means to ground the conceptual and imaginative in the tangible.
Three sets of drawings from the Norman Foster Foundation Archive, those of the Nomos Desking System, Hampstead House and Stansted Airport, formed the basis for scholars to engage in an exercise of research and creation related to design projects at three distinct scales. Building off of this conceptual framework and archival base material, students were encouraged to follow a process of first abstracting and analysing their project precedents in order to then arrive at a new design proposal.
Norman Foster Foundation + Politecnico di Milano + Universidad Politécnica de Madrid The programme emphasised the potential for sketching to fuel a continual dialogue between past, present and future, while existing as a means to ground the conceptual and imaginative in the tangible.
Three sets of drawings from the Norman Foster Foundation Archive, those of the Nomos Desking System, Hampstead House and Stansted Airport, formed the basis for scholars to engage in an exercise of research and creation related to design projects at three distinct scales. Building off of this conceptual framework and archival base material, students were encouraged to follow a process of first abstracting and analysing their project precedents in order to then arrive at a new design proposal.
Image Credits:
1 – Title: Rethinking Nomos; From the Functional Design to the Living Organism.
Designers: Alejandro Caraballo, Óscar Cruz, Peh Ker Neng
Designers: Alejandro Caraballo, Óscar Cruz, Peh Ker Neng
2 – Inhabit the Air. Designers: Gökhan Dede, Ana Gómez, Belén Ruiz
3 – Jia | House | Casa. Designers: Emmanuel Álvarez, Juan Mateos, Lee Chaer Shean
3 – Jia | House | Casa OPC 2. Designers: Emmanuel Álvarez, Juan Mateos, Lee Chaer Shean
Associated researches
Modern Method of Construction
Examines flexible and decentralized production systems that support customization through digital design and adaptive manufacturing. The main concepts of mass customisation, supply chain management and distributed manufacturing are linked together to optimize material use, environmental impact and prefabrication in architectural design.|
Experimental Material Systems Design
Perception, Materiality and Future Scenarios
