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Prospective Design

  1. Designing Between Worlds: A Reckoning with the Unfinished Condition of Public Design Transitions

    Designing Between Worlds: A Reckoning with the Unfinished Condition of Public Design Transitions

    Luis Garcia’s doctoral research emerged from a simple but consequential observation: the ambitious promises of Carnegie Mellon University’s transition design and European Public Design did not account for the institutional realities of the Global South. As an Ecuadorian designer who has worked across Latin America and North America, Dr. Garcia questioned how long-term societal transitions […] - Jun 25, 2026
  2. Designing alter/native realities

    Designing alter/native realities

    Abstract: Reality is so hard to change these days and, at the same time, so easy to deny, that design research is increasingly about virtual, augmented, mixed, and speculated realities. Prospective design is a research program born at UTFPR, Brazil, Global South, that speculates on reality as part of a larger move of transforming reality. […] - May 24, 2026
  3. Collective handiness in prospective design: a philosophical account of a serious play on articulation work

    Collective handiness in prospective design: a philosophical account of a serious play on articulation work

    Andrade Tavares, P., Freese Gonzatto, R., and van Amstel, F.M. (2026) Collective handiness in prospective design: philosophical musings on a serious play workshop on articulation work, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2538 - Mar 28, 2026
  4. Propective Design Studies (2025)

    Propective Design Studies (2025)

    Prospective Design Studies is a 60-hour graduate-level course in the Master’s in Prospective Design at UTFPR. The 2025 cohort was co-taught with Rodrigo Fresse Gonzatto and Geraldo Augusto Pinto. As an introductory course, Prospective Design Studies aims to provide an overview of the field, discussing the categories of structures, relational qualities, trajectories, projectories, and prospecting. […] - Feb 26, 2026
  5. Critical consciousness in Prospective Design

    Critical consciousness in Prospective Design

    Prospective Design is a field of research opened by researchers from the Graduate Program in Prospective Design (PPGDP) at UTFPR, of which the proponent is one of the founders. Since 2019, the proponent has been conducting participatory workshops with faculty, students, and others interested in what would become PPGDP. The workshops are being recorded in […] - Feb 6, 2026
  6. Prospective design: A structuralist design aesthetic founded on relational qualities

    Prospective design: A structuralist design aesthetic founded on relational qualities

    Botter, F., van Amstel, F. M. C., Mazzarotto Filho, M., and Guimarães, C. (2024) Prospective design: A structuralist design aesthetic founded on relational qualities, in Gray, C., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.883 - Jun 17, 2024
  7. Anticolonial prospects for overcoming the coloniality of making in design

    Anticolonial prospects for overcoming the coloniality of making in design

    Saito, C., Freese Gonzatto, R., and van Amstel, F. (2024) Anticolonial prospects for overcoming the coloniality of making in design, in Gray, C., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.255 - Jun 17, 2024
  8. Decolonizing Design Futures

    Decolonizing Design Futures

    Abstract: The never-fulfilling promise of a bright future has justified modern colonization for centuries. Modern design follows suit. Modern design has been exported to former colonies as a neutral, non-political way of making. The futures that came with them have contribute to maintain the coloniality of making, nurturing a sense of nostalgia and a conservative […] - Feb 28, 2024
  9. Prospecting relational qualities in Design Education through quilt therapy

    Prospecting relational qualities in Design Education through quilt therapy

    Guimarães, C., & Van Amstel, F. M. C. (2024). Prospectando qualidades relacionais na educação em Design através da quilt-terapia. Arcos Design, 17(1), 190–211. https://doi.org/10.12957/arcosdesign.2024.77916 - Jan 10, 2024
  10. Prospecting anti-colonial qualities in Design Education

    Prospecting anti-colonial qualities in Design Education

    Mazzarotto. M., Van Amstel. F. M. C., Serpa, B. O., Silva, S. B. (2023). Prospecting anti-colonial qualities in Design Education. V!RUS Journal, 26, 135-143. Translated from Portuguese by Giovana Blitzkow Scucato dos Santos. Available at: https://revistas.usp.br/virus/article/view/228457 - Dec 26, 2023
  11. Prospective Design: a research agenda for design interventions in sociotechnical systems

    Prospective Design: a research agenda for design interventions in sociotechnical systems

    Van Amstel, Frederick M.C.; Botter, Fernanda; Guimarães, Cayley. Design Prospectivo: uma agenda de pesquisa para intervenção projetual em sistemas sociotécnicos. Estudos em Design, 30 (2), 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.35522/eed.v30i2.1458 - Aug 30, 2022
  12. Designing relations in Prospective Design

    Designing relations in Prospective Design

    Prospective design is a new design approach developed at Federal University of Technology Paraná inspired by Carnegie Mellon University’s Transition Design approach. This short talk explains two of the differences between the approaches: 1) instead of focusing on alternative futures, Prospective Design focuses on alternative presents; 2) instead of framing situations as systems, it frames […] - Nov 12, 2021
  13. Prospecting a systemic design space for pandemic responses

    Prospecting a systemic design space for pandemic responses

    Van Amstel, Frederick M.C.; Guimarães, Cayley; Botter, Fernanda. (2021). Prospecting a systemic design space for pandemic responses. Strategic Design Research Journal, 14(1), pp.66-80. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4013/sdrj.2021.141.06 - Mar 22, 2021
  14. Prospective Design graduate program

    Prospective Design graduate program

    From 2019 to 2023, Frederick was part of the research committee that laid the foundations for the Prospective Design graduate program at UTFPR, the first of its kind in the nation. The Master’s course was officially launched in 2025, and a PhD track is expected to be launched by 2030. The program aims to train […] - Apr 8, 2020
  15. Digital Trends Observatory (2015-2017)

    Digital Trends Observatory (2015-2017)

    Regular course – 40hs – Digital Design Bachelor – Catholic University of Paraná This course helps students find a relevant topic for their final graduation work. They learn how to deal with trends and are tasked with identifying today’s digital design trends. In the Digital Design Trends Laboratory course, my students were requested to identify […] - Oct 31, 2018