2046 VISION OF THE FUTURE
Wurundjeri Country, Naarm / Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
BY NAARM: UPCYCLING TO THE MAXIMUM
I am a designer who grew up in a family that fixed things. It shaped me, the collector's eye, the making, experimenting, upcycling, repurposing. In 2026 the world moved too fast. Things then were over-engineered, under-valued and discarded before anyone thought to make them mean something. That world is hard to remember now.
Today it is mid-morning, Spring, on Wurundjeri Country, and I walk barefoot down the street on ground covered in native grasses. The sun is peering through the high tree cover, the air is clear, cool and smells fresh with the occasional wafts of cooking. The buildings are the same buildings, but retrofitted, patched, renovated using the things people no longer needed: e-waste and furniture and white goods and vehicle parts worked into facades that have become something strange and beautiful. Birds nest in the nooks. Plants sprout from every crevice. It looks like a collage. It is a collage. It is also home.
Every first floor is a third space, open to anyone. Upstairs, people can sleep in any building.
The street moves at the pace of care.
Small groups of people coalesce around doing what they love: chatting, some cooking, some building with found things, planters, shelters, baby cradles, public seating. Some make art and film and prototypes. Knowledge is shared freely, hands-on, between whoever is interested and willing. Companion animals wander alongside people.
Plant life sprawls without the bounds of curation. Animal life moves into what was once only human space. There is a collective sense of responsibility, pride, creativity, and care, over each other, and over all other life.
You can pursue what you love, knowing someone else will support and nourish you in return. The world will catch you.
Envisioned through: Imagining a Better World, Melbourne Design Week, 2026
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Image generated with Leonardo AI, 2026
PROMPT: Late spring morning in Melbourne, 2046, a view through the bushes over looking gums and Moreton Bay figs towering above multi-storey buildings covered in a vibrant living collage of repurposed objects, such as old furniture, timber offcuts, and vintage white goods, now transformed into nesting boxes, planters, and shelves, with native grass underfoot. The silhouettes of small groups of people with diverse skin tones and facial features, engaged in various activities including cooking at an open bench, building with found timber, and conversing. Soft dappled bokeh light. Rendered in cinematic photorealism, high dynamic range, ultra-realistic 8K detail, a touch of film grain.