Future World Vision ↗︎

Architect / Researcher

Infrastructure Research Software
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

2017-2020




        
Project overview with expert commentary. Courtesy ASCE and Experimental Design.
Future World Vision is an ongoing initiative of ASCE, America’s main body for the advancement of standards and code in civil engineering. The FWV initiative is an exercise in foresight, preparedness, and strategic vision that orients United States infrastructure well into the future.

The primary purpose is to simulate the outcomes of various infrastructural standards in future risk-environments. The software also stimulates the engineering imagination, and serves as a social technology for engineers, designers, and policy makers to collaboratively shape the future of American infrastructure.

In 2018 ASCE hired our team at Experimental Design to build five immersive urban simulations that chart paradigm shifts in engineering, climate responsivity, and urban systems from the present to 2070. We built the simulation software in Unity and authored the primary assets with Autodesk tools and Blender.


 
Sped up play-through of the Mega City. Courtesy ASCE and Experimental Design.
Each city simulation:

  • maps developments within an extreme climate condition
  • is built from expert insight and internal research
  • is a social space for engagement and review

The first city we built was the Floating City. This began with a 6-month research and development program. We explored economic models, structural feasability, and ecological design.  

We used a scenario modeling framework to chart multiple factors that may drive urban growith in the coming decades.  

The software, which can be downloaded here, is built to encourage expert discussion - like a social forum for engineers and designers.
 



IMAX trailer, handed off to producers MacGillivray Freeman.