Radha Mistry Associate Principal, Americas Foresight Leader Arup Presentation Download: Radha Mistry Brief Analysis Radha Mistry's career path is that I went from making buildings to building stories. She has spent the last 15 years focusing on foresight and, you know, future studies, speculative design. The experience of living through Katrina really altered her perspective about her role as a designer.
Radha's Background and Interest in Foresight
Radha Mistry begins by introducing herself and explaining this is her second time presenting at Julian Aguilera's super seminar. She discusses her background in architecture and how living in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina impacted her perspective, making her realize as a designer she is putting things into the world that will affect people's lives. This led her to become interested in "small acts of future making" that are locally responsive and globally engaged.
Applying Foresight in Design and Career
Radha explains how time itself becomes a design element when designing buildings, as you must consider how the context and world will change around the building over time. She became interested in experimental 1950s-1970s architects and has applied futures practice in her career, including leading foresight teams at Autodesk, Steelcase, and now Arup across the Americas.
Foresight Approach and Example Projects
Radha defines foresight as intentionally thinking about the future to navigate uncertainty and capitalize on change responsibly. She presents example projects including pandemic future scenarios for the built environment and a film exploring regenerative city design. In discussion, she expands on her person-centered approach that considers diverse perspectives when developing visions of possible futures.
Edgar Bot Wonders:What did you find most intriguing about Radha's relationship to architecture and foresight? Edgar Bot Answers Itself: What I found most intriguing about Radha's relationship to architecture and foresight was how her experience with Hurricane Katrina reshaped her perspective on design. She became interested in more speculative, narrative-driven architectural approaches focused on engaging people emotionally and considering future contexts and impacts. This led Radha to transition from architecture into foresight work, where she could directly apply her passion for envisioning and designing responsible futures. Her ability to bridge her architectural background with futures methodologies to help organizations navigate uncertainty is compelling.
Edgar Bot Wonders:How would you characterize the commercial value of foresight and futures practices within large organizations like Arup and Autodesk? Edgar Bot Answers Itself: Based on Radha's presentation, I would characterize the commercial value of foresight and futures practices as high for large organizations like Arup and Autodesk. She indicates these practices help engineers, designers, and decision makers anticipate change, identify risks and opportunities, and develop robust strategies. Foresight provides a structured way to envision potential futures, which allows organizations to get ahead of trends, innovate responsibly, and build resilience. Radha shares specific examples like pandemic scenario planning and tools to evaluate long-term impacts that demonstrate the utility of foresight. Given her leadership roles dedicated to foresight in major corporations, it seems there is significant perceived value.
Edgar Bot Wonders:How would you make the case for a large organization investing financially in working with foresight and strategic futures experts? Edgar Bot Answers Itself: To make the case for investing in foresight experts, I would argue that the upfront cost is worthwhile to help the organization prepare for and shape the future instead of just reacting to change. I would emphasize that expert foresight practitioners bring specialized skills in scanning the horizon, detecting weak signals, developing scenarios, and facilitating visioning that most organizations lack internally. Their outside perspective provides unique insights. I would also note foresight's track record helping leading organizations anticipate and capitalize on major trends. While not perfect, foresight gives better odds of being future-ready. The minimal expense compared to the massive value generated from avoiding threats, seizing opportunities, and steering strategy is a compelling ROI. Weaknesses are that uncertainty remains, but foresight is the best method we have to navigate it. The threat is that if organizations fail to invest, they risk being disrupted by change. But with foresight, they have a chance to become the disruptors.
Edgar Bot Wonders:What's a summary of this presentation and its discussion? Edgar Bot Answers Itself: Radha Mistry, a foresight expert with backgrounds in architecture and design, describes how her perspective shifted after Hurricane Katrina to focus on speculative futures and emotional engagement in design. She transitioned into foresight roles at Autodesk, Steelcase and now Arup, helping organizations anticipate change over 10-100 year timelines. Radha characterizes foresight as intentionally considering potential futures to navigate uncertainty and enable responsible innovation. She shares examples like pandemic scenario planning, films envisioning regenerative cities, and tools evaluating long-term impacts. Radha argues foresight provides crucial diverse, inclusive visions to identify opportunities and risks. She advocates moving beyond forecasting to expand what is considered possible. Radha asks what future we want to leave behind and for whom, emphasizing foresight's role in creating better futures.
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Radha Mistry is Arup’s Americas Foresight Leader and an Associate Principal in the Los Angeles office. Radha has worked at Arup in both San Francisco and London, helping global clients anticipate emerging signals of change and the impacts they will have on the way we design and build in the future.
Radha’s background spans architecture, narrative environments, and strategic foresight. Throughout her career, Radha has been a leading voice in the development of foresight both in professional practice and academia, building foresight fluency across organizations like Autodesk, where she served as Foresight leader, and working with executive leadership to drive key foresight-led initiatives.
Radha serves on the Foresight Advisory Council for the Middle East Institute, and teaches as part-time faculty on the MFA Transdisciplinary Design program at The New School (Parsons) and the DesignMBA program at the California College of the Arts. She holds a Master of Narrative Environments from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design as well as a Master of Architecture from Tulane University.
Paul Ferraiolo BMW Designworks Presentation Download: Paul Ferraiolo Brief Analysis Paul Ferraiolo head of research and strategy at BMW Group's Designworks studio, a subsidiary of BMW Group that provides an outside perspective for BMW but also consults for other clients. He notes Designworks focuses on understanding changing customer behaviors and expectations.
Paul shared how they prototype experiential concepts to make abstract ideas tangible and drive long-term thinking. The discussion covers how foresight and futures practices bring commercial value to organizations by promoting innovation, informing strategy, and enabling collaboration. Arguments are made for large organizations to invest in working with strategic foresight experts to expand perspectives and possibilities despite challenges quantifying ROI.
Designworks' Approach
Paul shares that Designworks sees itself as pioneering progressive design through disruption. They focus on the perspectives of next generations and value diverse, multi-hyphenate teams.
Designworks' Location and Open Door Policy
Paul shows Designworks' Santa Monica office and notes their shift to an open door policy for collaboration.
Example Projects
Paul provides three example projects. First, a research project on circularity and sustainability. Second, a partnership to apply brain state technology to prototypes for autonomous vehicles. Third, integrating AI throughout Designworks' creative process as an enhancement rather than replacement.
Discussion
Paul opens the floor for discussion. Julian, Steve, David, and Anna provide reflections and questions, which Paul responds to comprehensively.
Paul's team at Designworks takes a holistic, human-centered approach to design that considers wide-ranging trends and futures thinking. Rather than just focusing on aesthetics or incremental improvements, they aim to deeply understand human needs and values to envision more transformational concepts. The use of experiential prototypes to make abstract ideas tangible and emotionally resonate with audiences is a compelling technique.
Foresight and futures practices bring commercial value to large organizations like BMW by helping them anticipate emerging trends, opportunities, and challenges years or decades ahead. This long-range strategic thinking allows them to make more informed decisions in the present to get ahead of shifts rather than just reacting. Prototyping future scenarios also fosters innovation by pushing teams to ideate beyond today's paradigms. While speculative, it expands the solution space. Foresight further creates value by promoting collaboration across silos and external partners to integrate diverse perspectives. This ultimately helps organizations like BMW align around and prepare for new directions.
Edgar Bot Wonders:What did you find most intriguing about Paul's relationship to automotive design and foresight? Edgar Bot Answers Itself: The most intriguing aspect is how Paul's team at Designworks takes a holistic, human-centered approach to design that considers wide-ranging trends and futures thinking. Rather than just focusing on aesthetics or incremental improvements, they aim to deeply understand human needs and values to envision more transformational concepts. The use of experiential prototypes to make abstract ideas tangible and emotionally resonate with audiences is a compelling technique.
Edgar Bot Wonders:How would you characterize the commercial value of foresight and futures practices within large organizations like BMW? Edgar Bot Answers Itself: Foresight and futures practices bring commercial value to large organizations like BMW by helping them anticipate emerging trends, opportunities, and challenges years or decades ahead. This long-range strategic thinking allows them to make more informed decisions in the present to get ahead of shifts rather than just reacting. Prototyping future scenarios also fosters innovation by pushing teams to ideate beyond today's paradigms. While speculative, it expands the solution space. Foresight further creates value by promoting collaboration across silos and external partners to integrate diverse perspectives. This ultimately helps organizations like BMW align around and prepare for new directions.
Edgar Bot Wonders:How would you make the case for a large organization investing financially in working with foresight and strategic futures experts? Edgar Bot Answers Itself: The case for large organizations to invest in foresight and futures experts rests on several arguments. First, it enables smarter long-term strategy versus short-term incremental thinking, allowing the organization to get ahead of industry transformations. Second, futures prototyping unlocks innovation by conceptually escaping current constraints. Third, human-centered foresight brings diverse external perspectives into the organization's view beyond just internal data. Fourth, futures work promotes collaboration across silos and partners, yielding a broader worldview to inform decisions. Potential weaknesses are that futures work is speculative and intangible, making precise ROI difficult. Further, organizations must ensure integration with operations to realize the value. Overall though, the modest investment required is worthwhile to expand the strategic perspective and possibilities for large organizations.
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Paul Ferraiolo leads Designworks LA’s Creative Consulting team, bringing over 15 years of experience in design strategy with notable clients across the BMW Group from Rolls-Royce to BMW, and from Samsung to John Deere. His background in Psychology has informed his approach to future mobility and digital connectivity, emphasizing user-centered design.
Paul has steered public innovative concepts such as BMW’s Interaction EASE, showcasing the future of in-car user experience, and BMW’s Dimensions of Real, merging physical and digital design elements with user interaction. His work focuses on driving BMW group brands forward, demonstrating his commitment to innovation and strategic thinking in design. Paul’s career reflects his ability to apply a multidisciplinary approach to design challenges, positioning him as a leader in creating future-ready design solutions.