Toolkit

New Days:
Future Kit

Looking at our well-renowned welfare state, we have to realize that it’s fragile and broken. We need to address the challenges we’re facing in entirely new ways. Explore our scenario toolkit – it will provoke you and challenge the way we think about our elder care and welfare in a more broad interpretation

"Too much time goes by with process, bureaucracy, controls, and schedules. It erodes the joy of work. This makes it difficult to recruit. And it provides welfare that does not always live up to expectations. It's time to get to the core. What is the most important thing in our welfare?"

Mette Frederiksen

Prime Minister of Denmark

We couldn’t agree more – the urgency is now (and has been for years, to be frank), but what are the actions to put forward, and where do we look to get inspiration and take action?

It calls for new types of dialogue and perspectives to ensure that we are not just reproducing the system that seems broken – and that indeed calls for creativity and collective imagination.

Here at the DDC, we have created a toolkit and a frame to address the challenge using scenario-based design and speculative design.

"Over the past century, we’ve created the greatest gift in the history of humanity – thirty extra years of life – and we don’t know what to do with it!"

Joseph Coughlin

Founder, AgeLab

What

The New Days’ Future Kit is a toolbox with guides, materials, and visual tools that make it possible to bring diverse groups together to work experimentally, concretely, and co-creatively with aging and care of the future.

An essential part of the kit is the collection of speculative fragments from the future that consist of small glimpses, artifacts, and tales. The physical version contains actual versions of the artifacts and materials. These are introduced and used actively in workshops with us.

Who

The toolkit is relevant for anyone working in the public or private sector with care. The digital version of the toolkit presented here is meant as an inspiration. The elements will provoke you and challenge your thoughts and ambitions for the future of care. If the tools make you curious, reach out to us and we’ll arrange a targeted workshop for you.

How

The toolbox results from a long-running process of exploring and learning from alternative and desirable futures and translating the insights into innovative experiments in the present.

About New Days Future Kit

The toolbox results from a long-running process of exploring and learning from alternative and desirable futures and translating the insights into innovative experiments in the present.

We have most recently been part of the exhibition The Future is Present at Design Museum Denmark. Here, you can get a taste of how we use futures design to work strategically with our imagination. The exhibit had more than 150,000 visitors from June to December 2022. It runs till December 2024.

The project New Days, has been initiated by the DDC – Danish Design Center, Mandag Morgen, and Danish Life Science Cluster as well as Aalborg Municipality, Aarhus Municipality, Gladsaxe Municipality, Copenhagen Municipality, and the Region of Southern Denmark.

A Caring Future

The kit is available for free by the courtesy of us. Click on the three images to the right to download the toolkit in English.

The toolkit has the following features:

A methodological introduction to scenario design and speculative design framing our efforts in the New Days project
A description of four futures to open your mind to a range of radically different alternative futures
A vision of our preferred future – a caring future – to mobilize collective efforts towards a shared goal
A collection of three speculative fragments from the future to inspire, provoke, and initiate new conversations

The toolkit is also available in Danish. Download it here.

The method behind New Days

Four Alternative Futures

The Fragments

The Preferred Future

Four Alternative Futures

The Fragments

The Preferred Future

Scenario Design: What we offer

If you are interested in changing your organization through futures design and scenario design, we’ll gladly help you. We tailor the specific event to your exact needs and situation.

Talk: Listen to the Future
Book us for an inspirational talk, where you are invited into our scenario universe. The talk can be part of a conference or an independent event, and it can be physical or virtual. This type of event works as a great reference point for future discussions in your organization and as a first step in understanding how future scenarios can create value for you.
Workshop: Touch the Future
Use a half or full day to get an in-depth experience and new knowledge about your future organization. We’ll take you through relevant exercises and bring you forward in your process. The workshop can be physical or virtual.