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Imaginaries have a formative power; they can be probable, plausible, possible, orpreferable. They conceive meanings for individuals, communities, societies and relationswith the other. They are activated by real or mediated worlds. They operate as structure,interface or as simulations. They challenge established knowledge systems and expand ourways of knowing. Imaginaries wide and strange.

In what ways do imaginaries operate as tools that propel propositions to the following questions:“What is the role of architecture in regards to contemporary cultures and societies, urbanizationprocesses, identity policies, migration, climate change, environmental challenges, and disruptivetechnologies? How do we want to live and co-exist? What will our future look like, and how will thatbe manifested spatially, physically, and virtually? What role do digital developments andtechnology play in this? What is the role of architecture in tackling questions on aesthetics andradical beauty?”

Philosopher and social critic Cornelius Castoriadis saw radical imagination as a creativeforce that shapes our perception of reality and our capacity to envision new possibilities.On a bigger scale, his notion of a social imaginary represents the imagination of a society,manifested in its way of living, seeing, and making its own existence.

In the context of design cognition and design education, imagination is vital to what NigelCross describes as the ​“designerly ways of knowing,” fostering the human ability tomeaningfully compose the world we are within and evolve design and architecture as adiscipline of possibilities.
Therefore, this lecture series, Applied Imaginaries, is curated as an atlas of projects,practices, and strategies that turn imaginaries into design endeavors, some brought intothe world and others manifested as speculations yet to be fully formed or actualized.

Curated by: Camille Breuil, Anna Gulinska, Maja Ozvaldič, Giacomo Pala, Galo Moncayo