The Future Labs Module in Design Studies
As part of the second-year Design Studies module Future Labs, students transformed the University of Warwick campus into a site of live experimentation through the construction of improvised bamboo structures outside Junction.
The workshop explored alternatives to pre-planned cityscapes by asking: What happens when people are enabled to shape their own environments?
Rather than relying solely on drawings or speculative proposals, students designed and built temporary pop-up structures. Using bamboo as a lightweight, adaptable material, students engaged in architectural improvisation. This “on-the-fly” design approach challenges the rigid and highly pre-determined processes often associated with traditional architectural practice. Instead, it embraces responsiveness, participation, and uncertainty.
To enable this process, the campus functioned as a Living Lab. Not just a backdrop for learning, but an active testing ground. Students recorded not only structural outcomes, but also the physical, experiential, and emotional dimensions of building, asking questions such as How did constructing something themselves alter their relationship to place? How did passers-by respond to structures designed and built by students? The intervention revealed how even temporary, small-scale actions can shift perceptions of ownership, agency, and collective space.
This week sits within the broader aims of Future Labs - a holistic, practice-led enquiry into how society and its systems are designed. Throughout the module, students research, analyse, and design their own future cities - from political and cultural systems to infrastructure, services, regulation, and everyday life. Underpinned by complexity science, systems thinking, and systemic design, the module encourages students to identify interdependencies, pain points, and leverage points within social and ecological systems.