future scenarios

Architectural fiction has been broken up into four different themes, being Urban, Suburban, Regional and Virtual. Each of these themes presents a different challenge and a different future scenario. In the studio we were given a design charrette, four different scenarios were presented, four for each theme. With two hours to respond to each of the four future scenarios, we split into groups of four and began work. 
The first theme was urban, and the scenario presented was "What if the Brisbane City Council introduced London style congestion charges to the CBD in 2020 to heavily reduce traffic?" 
Firstly we looked at how this would effect the existing streets in Brisbane. Would they become open malls? Would smaller buildings be built in them? Or would they be returned to the pedestrians of the city, as has happened in Las Rambalas Barcelona (below)

What ever the use it was clear that the streets of the city would drastically change, even if it is only through the activation of them by heavy, regular pedestrian traffic. One idea that was entertained within the group was the implementation of vertical farming within the inner city streets, constantly rotating on a Ferris wheel of sorts to maintain exposure to the sun

Next theme was suburban, and the scenario presented was "what if all the retail stores in Paddington central stopped selling good in favour of online shopping, but decided to keep stores to maintain a physical presence and provide a customer experience?" This sort of transition into an experiential shopping environment seems to be something that would only work for certain products/stores (i.e. convenience stores could never convert to online shopping). However for the stores that this could work for, it could mean smaller, less cluttered stores resulting in a more positive shopping experience. However it was brought up that a lot of people go shopping to buy something, to walk away with something in their hands. Ultimately, as a group, it was decided that in a majority of cases this type of shopping would not work. However it does pose interesting questions about the future of large shopping establishments, when prices of space will potentially drastically rise. 

The Regional theme proposed the question "What if Woodford Folk Festival site became a self-sufficient  community that was owned and operated self-sufficiently?" As a heavily music orientated site, we focused on a way to create self-sufficiency out of music. Essentially what we thought of was a music school, where people came and refined their art. As they move out into the world of music, they school would act as their record label/manager, thus deriving income from its students, to pay for tours and future students. Basically the school would pay for students and the students would pay for the school.

The idea hinges on ideals of sharing and giving, with students of the school focusing more on creating a music community then making individual fame or money.
Finally the virtual theme and the scenario "What if the QLD Government Key strategy was to solve urban, suburban and regional issues virtually?" presented the most challenge. After working on this for half an hour and getting no where good, it was clear that it needed to be looked at from a more conceptual point of view. 
Out of all the themes the one that I feel i am most suited to (the one that i actually have ideas for) is the urban theme. The future of the inner city is a topic that i feel will be of great importance in the near future, and the opportunity to examine this in a final year design project is too good to pass