Living in the future of 2040 – Centrale Marseille
Design Fiction workshop for engineering students

Beyond the need to train future scientific managers in engineering techniques, Centrale Marseille is concerned with their openness to the world and their ability to develop a sense of responsibility and cooperation.
Through their “Train’ing” module, students have the opportunity to open up to Culture and Society “while raising questions around themes related to societal and environmental issues”.
The 2021 edition is a first; the engineering students discover a workshop halfway between art and science: design fiction, a prospective method for projecting themselves into a probable future and imagining solutions to future behaviour.
Conceived with the designer Lucie Cassisa, we chose the subject Living in the future in 2040 according to the UN’s SDGs. In an optimistic spirit, we have taken the side of utopia by encouraging useful and sustainable innovation, and the ecological transition.

The young engineers had to use critical thinking, ingenuity and creativity to come up with a scenario, design a representation of their idea through a prototype, and present it.
Each group of students was able to focus on a theme of their choice:
- Urban mobility
- New education systems
- Welcoming climate refugees
- Ethical forms of housing
- Self-sufficient food production



Credits
Client
Centrale Marseille
Beneficiaries
Engineering students
In collaboration with
Lucie Cassisa – Kalliste