Welcome to IIDA's The Futures Source
I have spent much of my career trying to help people see change before it becomes obvious and understand what that change might require of them.
That work has taken different forms over the past few decades. It started by helping clients understand what was changing with their teams, customers, and communities, then evolved into using more evidence-backed design to create entirely new outcomes. It later moved deeper into research and strategy through white papers, scenarios, and consulting with companies, institutions, nonprofits, and leaders on where their next opportunities and challenges were coming from, and what they could do about them now. At IIDA, where I now serve as chief research and strategy officer and lead IIDA Futures, that work has become even more focused on the design industry, the broader built environment, and the changes I see coming that could become a force multiplier for what our industry can offer.
And, importantly, IIDA Futures was created to help provide clarity because design and the larger built environment are being asked to do more. That shift is showing up in almost every conversation. It shows up in a client asking whether a workplace still matters. It shows up in a manufacturer trying to explain material claims with more evidence. It shows up in a facilities team inheriting a space that looks good but is difficult to operate. It shows up in a dealer trying to protect design intent through procurement pressure. It shows up in a firm leader wondering what skills their team will need next. It shows up in a community asking whether a new place will make daily life better, easier, more connected, or more resilient.
Designers, firm leaders, manufacturers, dealers, reps, educators, students, facilities teams, owners, developers, construction partners, and community members are all being asked to respond to questions that are becoming more complex, more uncertain, and more interconnected. That means the industry needs a place to learn about what is changing with discipline, imagination, and practical value.
This blog is my attempt to create a clearer place for those conversations.
The questions I will keep returning to are straightforward, and I hope they build on each other over time. What is the built environment becoming? What are we already locking into place through the decisions we make now? Where are people carrying burdens that design, construction, products, ownership, or operations could have anticipated? Which claims need more proof? Which systems need more trust? Which spaces are helping people become more capable, and which are quietly making life harder than it needs to be?
And while I am interested in the future, this blog will not be a trend report or a scenario repository. It will be a place to work through real uncertainty, build sharper questions, develop stronger language, identify better signals to watch, create more useful frameworks, and clarify what deserves attention and what to do about it.
Most of all, I hope this becomes a place where the industry can slow down enough to see what is forming, then move with more intention.
The built environment is one of the most powerful ways society makes the future tangible. It shapes how people gather, work, learn, heal, age, belong, recover, participate, and imagine what is possible. That means the questions we ask now matter.
This blog is where I will ask them out loud, and I hope, where you will find answers to the questions being asked of you and your work.
