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Not a Form but a Philosophy of Our Time - Part 4
Part 4 of 4
Looking at the Millennial Trains Project as a work of social architecture more than a formal education program, German baugruppen ("building groups") come to mind. Baugruppen are collectives formed with the intent of building sustainable, urban housing. Like Amsterdam's Scheepstimmermanstraat, they are user-generated structures that create intentional, immediate communities. Eliminating the developer to lower overall costs, the designs are often innovative and the owners are a part of the process. With underdeveloped land, Berlin's local government set up incentives to encourage baugruppen projects.
An intentionally designed system, the mechanisms of the Millennial Trains Project insured there was buy-in from the beginning—like baugruppen, the journey was a user-generated experience for each individual on the train. By turning the traditional application process on its head with the crowdfunding competition, each applicant needed the intrinsic motivation to take risks and be a spokesperson for their personal mission, then manage the social pressure from supporters to finish their project. Given all the necessary structural supports and free space and time, it was the participant's decision how to use this platform.
Where does a transcontinental train journey fit in?
"Travel is one of the biggest forces of change in our life. It has the ability to enrich, teach, surprise and ultimately transform us," said Keith Bellows, former Editor-in-Chief of the National Geographic. Urging parents, corporations, and schools to to think of travel not as a vacation, but as a critical learning tool, Bellows emphasized that a huge part of education today is preparing students to be "world ready workers." In a country where only 37% of Congress has a passport, we must learn as a country "how to receive the wisdom of the planet."
Architectural discussions usually revolve around trends or a particularly well done building, leaving the social, emotional, and spiritual aspects to play a subordinate role. Travis Price, the architect behind Spirit of Place, a design-build exploration program for architecture students, and mentor a on the train, emphasized attention to these frequently overlooked elements in place as well as in education. Our interactions with others and our environment once again prove to be paramount in design—whether it be of a governance system, an education program, or a building.
View the Millennial Trains Project as an artifact from the future—a small piece of an education system designed for a globalized world, preparing students to take their place in the innovation economy, and participate in a governance system designed for a generation of pioneers and tinkerers that emphasizes collaborative leadership and co-creation.
"Democracy depends on a group of people with a shared understanding of the world. How do you take people with differing interests, in an increasingly fragmented world, and make something common of it?" said Oreskes during his dome car talk, referencing our culture and epistemology.
On the precipice of this exponential change Oreskes talks about, how will we unite the topography of our generation? One unavoidable scarcity—time—presents us with the ultimate limitation and uniting force. Creating a mosaic bound to place and time, the 24 Millennials on the train represented 24 different lenses, witnessing America in the early third millennium. Coming together to wind our impressions, we've started to create a common culture.
Ultimately, it is people who carry culture—and create it. Though we may be able to endlessly replicate our digital photographs, our experience in the world is transitory, necessary bound in space and time, and will fade like train tracks disappearing into the horizon.
Honoring the human experience and interaction, this inaugural journey of the Millennial Trains Project is small glimpse of one possible future, and an experiment in living a new paradigm.
For More Information
- Governance Futures Lab
- Governance Futures Lab and the Millennial Trains Project
- Social Inventor's Toolkit
Lindsea K. Wilbur is an IFTF Research Affiliate.