Description
Confronting 2lst-century challenges requires design education to equip students with the skills to critically reevaluate foundational concepts. The concept of wealth in design evolves towards a comprehensive wealth framework built upon a portfolio of interdependent capitals. As the HCD+ movement suggests, design education should evolve to operationalize these complex perspectives and lead the way in shaping the vision. This paper argues that futures thinking is a vital pedagogical practice for this task. We present the "Liu Hai's Dream" project as a case study, using the speculative re-imagining of a traditional snuff bottle to explore this evolved definition of wealth. The project's variations interrogate how value is constructed across different capitals: "The Status Dialectic" critiques the future of symbolic capital, exploring how material scarcity transforms objects into controversial signifiers of status; "The Vessel of Self" redefines wealth as wellbeing, aligning with post-growth principles by prioritizing mental health over material accumulation; "The Neo-Talisman" investigates the fusion of historical artifacts with biotechnology, creating new forms of cultural and intellectual capital that function as augmented, functional assets. By translating theoretical frameworks into tangible provocations, the project demonstrates how futures thinking can equip students to actively participate in the ongoing redefinition of value. It positions the designer as a facilitator of "design capital," enhancing a community's or an individual's capacity to shape their future. For the next 20 years, we advocate for a design education that embraces this forward-looking literacy, empowering a new generation to design for a more holistic and sustainable conception of wealth.| Period | 26 Feb 2026 |
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| Event title | 20th International Conference on Design Principles & Practices: Ddsign Across Time |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Rome, ItalyShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |