Shared Futures

Shared Futures are the manifestations of future architecture. They are projects designed to change systems through collective imagination. In the early days of future architecture's development (2015-2020), more detailed parameters were established to describe Shared Futures:

A Shared Future is a potential reality co-created with shared visions to achieve collective wellbeing and shared prosperity. Not unlike a startup, it realizes a vision by organizing resources to catalyze innovation. But the values of a Shared Future dictate that it work toward the following goals to mitigate centuries of harm done by unchecked colonial and capitalistic power: develop a more inclusive economy; build a more equitable society; cultivate a more pluralistic culture; and steward a more responsible technology.

A Shared Future operates with the mindset of abundance instead of scarcity; prioritizes the benefit of the commons over the expansion of the market; engages in regenerative rather than extractive production; and favors stewardship over ownership of resources and assets.

A Shared Future can be young or mature—which is strictly determined by its age, not the degree to which it has succeeded—and can experience any of the following four modalities in non-linear and recurring manners:

1. Discovery: A fluid state of curiosity and curation in which to identify the shape of collaboration: passions, values, challenges, opportunities, collaborators and resources.

2. Incubation: A focused container in which to articulate visions, align values, build capacity, attract resources and prototype concepts and processes.

3. Cultivation: A state characterized by steady growth, in which to iterate, learn and integrate. The growth of a Shared Future is measured by values alignment and stakeholder engagement that lead to demonstrable shared prosperity.

4. Fractal: Once it enters this modality, a Shared Future has become scalable, portable, translatable and replicable. It is a shared reality fully embedded into the daily lives of its community. It will be up to the community to contextually determine its own self-organizing patterns.