manuelr – LookingOutwards1 – THE FUTURE ENERGY LAB

 

What if we could envisage the future data of our city to give citizens safe feelings in the present?

This project speculates about the possibility of gathering actual data to predict a future data, so we would know the consequences of actual decisions.

Link to the video:

https://vimeo.com/205408902

This is a work done by Superflux for the Government of UAE. The target is to develop a mechanism to experience numerous possible futures around energy, but more importantly, to stress test the opportunities and broader systemic consequences of each future with Cabinet Ministers and key decision makers.

Their main focus for the project was the creation of the Future Energy Zone. Extrapolating insights from the Ministry of Energy’s econometric data and projections, they created a model metropolis from the future that made the data experientially evocative and acted out the implications of new energy policies on the urban landscape.

The idea of the “augmented physical model” gives us some perspective about different scales. While people recognize physical models quicker (sense of what it is, scale, material,…), it is not enough for a big data analysis. The augmented digital layer gives us the dynamic state and the main information.

This continuous shift between physical and digital generates a great scope of time. They had to come up with new elements, developing a range of artefacts that had to look outwards towards the past. They generated some “future air” to see what it would be to breathe unpolluted air, in a way to concienciate the citizens to change their lifestyle.

This project is obviously expensive to produce, so they involved some public funding, trying to encourage citizens to contribute financially towards a long term investment.

This futuristic project deals with multiple layers of information and scales. It is an urbanistic data project in which different stratum have their word. Because of its nature of “huge scale experimental process”, it is difficult to analyze every single element that completes the synergy. Early stage of a compelling and fundamental project that can create a new paradigm for how cities will work in a near future.

Link to the project website:

http://superflux.in/index.php/work/futureenergylab/#