WHY
Frederik's speculative design approach sparks discussions about possible futures while encouraging critical reflection on the present. With a focus on technology and ecology, his work addresses complex issues often created by short-term solutions, engaging a broader audience with topics typically confined to expert circles.
In his work, design becomes a tool to explore, research, and visualise what is still intangible - creating a shared language that demystifies concepts that have yet to be put into words, but are crucial to confront. By doing so, it fosters dialogue and prompts critical reflection on the choices we face.
HOW
Although the approach is subject-specific, Frederik’s design process can typically be divided into three phases - explore, imagine, and make - with different steps that weave them together.
Project subjects are always drawn from Frederik's personal fascinations, with a focus on technology and ecology - from driverless vehicles to fast fashion production systems and interplanetary living.
Research provides a solid foundation. It means understanding current systems, relationships, and tensions surrounding a subject, ensuring the work is rooted in facts to stay connected to reality.
Within this research, frictions emerge when values clash, creating discomfort. Identifying these tensions is essential - they become the starting point for speculation.
These frictions are then extrapolated into potential futures to explore how ideas, objects or technologies might evolve or manifest under speculative narratives.
Assembling all gathered research, a coherent world can be built where a certain change has happened.
Materialisation makes this world tangible, creating a shared language that connects with a broad audience and bridges the gap with industrial and academic bubbles.
WHEN
When talking about the future, speculative design doesn't point to a specific date. Instead, it specifies the position an idea occupies within different potential futures - how likely, how far from our current reality, and how recognisable it still feels.
In his work, Frederik positions himself in the imaginable future, while crossing the borders of the expected and hypothetical futures. Connecting with what’s expected grounds the work while tiptoeing into the hypothetical sparks excitement, curiosity and wonder.
By imagining what our future might look like, speculative design critically questions our present - the values, systems, and choices we take for granted.