School children design the future

On the 7th of July this year the 30 Degrees Solar Project (30 Grad Solar) opened in Berlin. The project connects the roofs of 14 schools across different districts of the city into one photovoltaic park, which generates electricity for 220 households. Hermann Scheer - one of the leading personalities in solar energy matters - opened the day, but the main focus of the event was to give the students an insight into the technology and the opportunities it offers.

thequietriot.com ran a series of design workshops with primary school children around the age of ten. The topic of the day was energy and the future, so we set the following design challenge: Imagine 10 or 15 years from now -  you will be grown up, work or go to university. What will the part of the city you live in look like?

We split classes into groups of ten and gave the students a blank white board, pens, post-it notes and piles of magazines full of images and we asked them to create a 'mood board' which expresses their future world.

Within seconds the board was on the floor, the children sitting around it drawing, writing, debating, cutting and tearing images from the magazines and arranging them on the board.

The big themes were discussed: transport, housing, water, green spaces, information, entertainment, food and a big picture emerged. After 40 minutes they were finished and the groups presented to each other and told their stories of what they believed the future would look like.

Very colourful and positive stories emerged: Planes will be solar powered. Cars will be clean and look very different from current models. Buildings will be modern and run on renewable energy. There will be futuristic towers and intimate private spaces with water and nature in between. The technology will be smart and integrated with digital devices. No steam, no smoke - there will be a lot of light and air. 

At the end of the presentation one of the girls had the following line on her post-it note and she insisted that it had to be on the board: Die Zukunft liegt in unseren Händen - the future lies in or hands.

We would like to thank the students from the Paavo-Nurmi-Grundschule in Berlin, Marzahn for their enthusiasm. They proved to be very creative thinkers and we hope they will continue to be so.

© 2009 M.HAUS