The future is not just something that happens to us; it’s something we can actively shape, not least through the power of imagination.

On 30 January 2025, EIT Urban Mobility, Stockholm Environmental Institute and our partner Tartu University co-organised a playful workshop at Tartu University in Estonia on imagining desirable future scenarios for urban mobility and liveable cities.

Futures Bazaar: A public imagination toolkit

Drawing on the Futures Bazaar public imagination toolkit, the workshop brought together nearly 20 participants – representing Estonian cities, ministries, higher education institutions and startups as well as local citizens and students – in a successful joint exercise of futures thinking and decision-making.

The Futures Bazaar toolkit was created with support from the BBC. The developers designed the toolkit to help participants explore potential futures and make decisions through playful, hands-on engagement and imagination. Participants use simple materials to craft thought-provoking artefacts, encouraging creativity, foresight and collective storytelling to make future scenarios more relatable and actionable.

The Swedish municipalities of Huddinge, Kungsbacka and Helsingborg inspired EIT Urban Mobility’s Futures Bazaar workshop in Tartu. The three municipalities coordinated a group of more than ten municipalities with similar workshops on the same day in municipalities across Sweden.

Creating future solutions through playful exploration

In Tartu, Nadja Haugas, an experienced futures researcher, was in charge of guiding the participants through the workshop. For her, futures thinking is a crucial exercise: “We must move beyond pessimistic assumptions about the future. Anticipating the future, along with potential risks and opportunities, and incorporating them into long-term planning while working together towards a desirable future is essential. We should be aware that we can actively create the future through our decisions. The future is not something that ‘someone has decided for us’.”

The groups, composed of professionals from various fields, decided to focus on 2050 as the time horizon, as they have seen as a feasible and imaginable future.

In the groups, they developed artefacts representing a future solution by using different materials to create detailed models. While exploring these solutions, the groups also considered their feasibility. However, the main goal was to keep the process “playful and [to] let loose,” as Nadja Haugas pointed out.

“The immediate outcomes […] sparked enthusiasm to start looking for solutions and imagining a better future from the perspectives of energy, health, movement, regenerative practices and so on. At the end of the workshop, everyone presented their models and ideas, which sparked conversation among each other,” said Nadja Haugas.

Practical steps beyond the workshop

Several participants said they would make use of the Futures Bazaar toolkit in their own organisations and many appreciated the contrast between this hands-on approach and their usual desk work.

Participants also discussed how they could take practical steps following the workshop, including considering legislative and financial decisions, exploring market alternatives and thinking about innovative approaches to achieving a desirable future.

Adriana Pacheco, Partner Development Officer at EIT Urban Mobility and a participant in the workshop, commented that the workshop “was a great reminder that the future isn’t something that just happens to us. It’s something we can actively shape. It’s refreshing to take a hands-on approach to building the future we want.”