About the Workshop: Karachi is the sixth most water-stressed city in the world, with roughly 20 million residents regularly facing water shortages. The collapse of the current water system triggers the need to unfold the crisis, raise awareness and collectively offer new perspectives. Speculative & Critical Design (SCD) is one approach that uses design as a medium to raise critical questions, to provoke debate and imagine alternative futures. In this workshop we will cover core concepts and terminology of SCD and its application to conduct future-facing design research and ideation through a playful and participatory exercise focused on Karachi and its emerging water crisis. Through an exchange of ideas, strategies and provocative thoughts, we will build a model of the existing scenario, critique the present, explore alternative future thinking and collectively analyze undesirable and desirable water futures, along with new products, systems and services.
This workshop is aimed for students of a range of disciplines: architecture, art, design, fashion, policy, urbanism, technology, social sciences, media and cultural studies, who wish to develop a critical sensibility towards design. Working through the problem of Water Futures for Karachi, participants will learn to apply SCD methods in a variety of other disciplines and domains.
About the Instructor: Hira Zuberi, is an architect and designer, interested in critical and creative urban thinking through a transdisciplinary approach. She is an alumni of Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture (IVS).
