Annual theme "The Present of the Future"
Interdisciplinary Lecture Series (2014/15)

20.01.2015

Fictions of the Future

Liam Young

Liam Young

Liam Young calls himself a speculative architect. In his work he explores possible futures, which he extrapolates from the present by means of design and fiction. With Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today he has founded a think tank for urban futures whose work examines the possibilities of fantastic, speculative and imaginary urbanisms. Here, speculative scenarios for the near future are being developed to explore emerging environmental and technological futures. Young also co-runs the Unknown Fields Division, an award winning ›nomadic research studio‹ that travels on annual expeditions to distant regions of the world to investigate nascent future trends. His work has been recognized in both mainstream and architectural media, including television programmes on BBC and print media such as Wired, The Guardian, Time Magazine and Dazed and Confused, and can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum, amongst others. In 2013 he was curator of the Lisbon Architecture Triennial. Young has held teaching positions at the Architectural Association in London and at Princeton University and now runs an MA in Fiction and Entertainment at SCI-Arc, California.