Alice Strutt

Developing Speculative Tools to Imagine Radical Regenerative Futures

This research investigates how speculative design can be used by non-designers to explore regenerative futures within their own fields. Speculative design offers a way of noticing overlooked conditions in the present. It imagines plural futures that challenge dominant assumptions. It shifts focus from solutions to possibilities, using modes such as second-order design fiction, world-building and speculative prototyping to surface alternative ways of thinking. The project aims to develop and test accessible, practice-led tools that enable critical and creative engagement with uncertainty. The tools will be designed for professionals and researchers in environmental, technical, and social domains who work with complex systems and long-term challenges. The research draws on participatory and visual methods to support reflection, dialogue, and experimentation. It situates speculative design as a means of engaging with regeneration through situated, interdisciplinary practice.

Supervisor team: Dr Andrew Cook and Mr Fraser Bruce