Envisioning urban futures as conversations to inform design and research

Recognising that cities provide the context for, and are often the direct beneficiary of, much civil engineering design and construction, it is essential that the future aspirations of city stakeholders are understood, and accommodated where possible. Without this, engineering is likely to prove inefficient at best and potentially ineffective. Developing visions for future cities is essential for all urban design, engineering and planning projects. However, there is a tendency for future visions to be produced in the later stages of research and design processes. Moreover, future visions usually focus on communicating a selection of alternative and coherent scenarios, rather than the complexity of their formation and context. This paper proposes that processes of envisioning urban futures can be designed as conversations among different actors. The resulting visions articulate the multiplicity of perspectives that emerge from such conversations, rather than presenting possible solutions. Drawing from research conducted as part of the Liveable Cities programme, alongside contributions from the Foresight Future of Cities project and Urban Living research, the paper will reflect on how participatory design and information visualisation methods can be adopted to engage participants in developing visions for future cities that articulate complexity and criticalities.