Fall 2008 / Team Project / Institute of Design
Infused Nature is a conceptual system that envisions integrating nature into an increasingly technological society, 100 years in the future.

The problem
This project was part of the Chicago: Vision for the Future project, which reflected upon Chicago's growth in the past 100 years and envisioned its potential for the year 2109. Our team was tasked with exploring how nature might fit into the future urban environment.

Research approach
As the urban environment is an increasingly complex system, our team did extensive research into urban agriculture, citizen involvement, parks, sustainability, new technologies, and building materials. Secondary research was supplemented by several site observations.

Developing a system of solutions
Our goal was to develop a holistic collection of concepts - ranging from products to service offerings to educational programming - that would strategically address the entire urban system. Insights from our research, combined with the Structured Planning method [PDF], ensured that concepts addressed real user needs and lent to system-wide coverage.

The final concepts fit into four categories: personal growth, integrating nature into the urban context, networks, and infrastructure. The complete documentation of our solutions can be found in our final report and appendices.