Urban Transcripts (Mar 2021)
The Power of Envisioning: Projective design as a tool for embracing radical change
Abstract
During the summer of 2019, the National Environmental Vision (De Nationale Omgevingsvisie-NOVI), was published in the Netherlands. For the first time in planning history, the Netherlands got a full-scale vision, not just for infrastructure or land use, but for the entire living environment. The vision highlighted a common interest for businesses, governments, academia and civil society: the quality of the environment. At the same time however, NOVI still hesitates to address the confrontation between the comfortable, pre-existing structures (fossil fuel dependence, high CO2 emissions etc.) and the extent of change of Dutch cities and landscape (nitrogen crisis, shortage of housing etc.). Based on this observation, this paper investigates how design-led approaches can allow different stakeholders to see the bigger picture, embrace change and contribute to the active implementation of strategic visions. Focusing on the Randstad region, the authors draw inspiration from the work of Superstudio and use extreme –and sometimes dystopian–- scenarios of large-scale change as a snapshot of a potential future. Building upon their experience with projective visions and research-by-design, they indicate how the implementation of strategic visions like the NOVI can be enhanced by practices that leverage imagination, creativity and data-driven experimentation.
