FUTURE STORIES

Future Stories is a speculative design project created to invite planners and stakeholders from the German-Dutch border around Heerlen/Aachen to think about the future of the region. The research was developed between June and November 2023 and finally shared during a large three-day workshop held by the Dutch CRA and the German BBSR. 


Our goal was to use speculative story telling to imagine ourselves closer to the future of the region and try to collaboratively reflect on the spatial and political decisions we make today.


The journey into the Future Stories departs from the past and present eye height perspective of the lived landscape - the dwelling perspective. For this we took fieldwork as a starting point to ensure an informed process that is interactive, situated, participatory and embedded. During the summer 2023 we spent time in the border region and collected stories as an input for the round tables with the stakeholders. These stories are summarised in ‘The Border Journal’ aiming to create a common ground for the cross-border collaboration.


When exchanging our findings with the stakeholders we observe that larger shifts in our thinking about the future require a reconsideration of contemporary values which are often based on growth paradigms. In order to create a dialogue about a future that goes beyond keeping the status quo, we looked at Post Growth values and discussed with local actors and experts how we can achieve value changes embedded within the regional (planning) culture. In our design research, we focused on the Wurmtal as a potential bioregion with autonomous, experimental policy measures as a speculative project to reimagine cross-border collaboration.


To make this bioregion come to live, we developed the Future Stories of two fictional characters who live in the Wurmtal in 2100: a young swimmer, Yona, and the land custodian, Eva. During a walk through the border landscape the participants met these protagonists and got to know how their way of living is creating a new relationship with soil and water. Later these speculative stories were informing discussions on the near future of the region and acted as a tangible framework to discuss how existing projects could look if updated according to the principles of Post Growth Metabolism. During this exercise, the boundaries of institutional layers and regulations were revealed as the main obstacles to pursuing the ideas of the Future Stories in real life.


On the final day of the workshop, we took the participants and guests into the future with a guided ritual. Movement, listening, and drinking 'holy water' were meant to bridge the gap between the present and the future. The future is now. Our proposal for the bioregion Wurmtal as an independent administrative region is now considered as a pilot project to test ideas from the Future Stories.



This project was created by invitation from the Dutch CRa to participate in the Future Studio Rhein-Meuse 2023. Our clients were the Dutch College van Rijksadviseurs (CRa) and the German Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs, and Spatial Development (BBSR) and the many stakeholders such as Parkstad Limburg, StädteRegion Aachen and Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier.



This project was executed by Fischbach Collective:

two landscape architects - each with their own approach towards reading landscapes (Anna Maria Fink/Atelier Fischbach and Lieke de Jong/Landscape Collected), a local sociologist and speculative design expert (Theo Ploeg/Studio Hyperspace), an applied anthropologist (Ester Heiman) and a product designer (Elza Berzina/Forest 5x5).


the Future Stories were shared during collective walks in the border landscape

the suits of the future protagonists connected the speculative story of Eva and Yona to the landscape of the present

collective activities, like eating the local watercress, created shared embodied knowledge and sensual experience

the Future Stories were read together, so that the protagonist’s voices became ours

we believe that stories shared outside - in the landscape - are necessary to expand our capacity for speculative thought and alternative worlds

“My favourite thing to do, is to follow the Wurm by foot. Sometimes for hours or even days, searching for new places to wade in the water and feel its current. With my body in the water the Wurm is teaching me the nuances of diverse water habitats.”

YONA, the young swimmer


The WATERSUIT of Yona belongs to the newest traditional clothes of the Wurmthal developed around 2090. It is a silk-like, floating garment that guides wearers in learning from the water. 


Through this innovative suit and an accompanying observational drone, users can access data on the physical and organic qualities of water, transforming the body into a sensor for a deeper understanding of aquatic environments.

EVA, the land custodian


Eva’s daily workwear is quipped with lengthy threads that collect and disperse pollen and seeds. With it one seamlessly blends into the natural surroundings. The pants are made of data-sensitive material that analyses soil fertility and observes humidity. They are worn with bare feet so the underground is undestood both, through the body as well as the data collection. 


The hood plays a crucial role for providing insect protection as the insect populations have been thriving in the new environment that is no longer separated into ‘nature’ or ‘agriculture’. 

“I am a custodian of the land, what you used to call a farmer. I actively works on the well-being of the land. We harvest food, medicine and building materials from the land. We make new soils - with our food, with our houses, with our clothes, with our bodies. ‘Waste’ does not exist anymore.”

Drawings by Elza Berzina