Futures west : a design research initiative promoting sustainable futures for Western Sydney

How will life in Western Sydney change over the coming decades? What will be driving the changes? What kinds of responses to these changes will be appropriate, desirable and sustainable? These are questions that a new design research initiative at the University of Western Sydney titled Futures West, seeks to respond to. Futures West aims to exercise the creative and practical capabilities of design to generate alternative visions of the future of Western Sydney, and to develop the means to bring these visions into being through targeted, community-relevant projects. This paper will outline the initiative, discuss the outcomes of the first Futures West event held in June this year, and present ways forward that raise promising questions about the role of the university in preparing for a climate-changed future