ROTTERDAM.- Designing the future should be left up to the designers of the future. When today’s adults were still children, they fantasised about a utopian future of flying cars, life on Mars and robots doing the heavy lifting. Research* shows that children today have a much less carefree view of the future. They worry about climate change, war, pandemics and inequality. Adults need to take their dreams of the future seriously and help to make them come true.

This is why Future Makers! will open on Saturday 14 December at the Nieuwe Instituut, the national museum for architecture, design and digital culture in Rotterdam. This new exhibition will occupy the entire third floor of the Nieuwe Instituut for at least two years.

In Future Makers! children will work on shaping the future through doing, making and discovering. They will show not what they want to become, but what they already are: the designers of the future! They will help design a never-ending flag, complete tasks with an ‘intraterrestrial being’ from the More-than-Human Machine, create a magical menu in The Helping Hand Restaurant and become tomorrow’s climate heroes. What are their biggest hopes for the future? What would they like to change?

For children, by children

Because children know best what they want, what they need, what interests them and what sparks their imagination, Future Makers! is not just made for children – but also by them. The exhibition was conceived and created by our Children’s Team: Alpha (10), Aurélie (9), Jing Jing (9), Lua (12), Malikai (11), Mio (9), Nori (8), Ocean (8) and Uma (10). They helped to think up the themes, design, content and promotion of the exhibition, with the support of the design agency Opperclaes, the design collective STORE Rotterdam and 150 pupils from five Rotterdam primary schools.

“I really enjoyed making the exhibition and I encourage other children to visit it. You can learn how to work together here, and how many beautiful things you can create together.” – Aurélie (9)

“I hope people will understand that they should help nature more and that adults don’t have to decide everything. Children can do a lot themselves.” – Ocean (8)

“We want to teach adults that they should listen to children more and that we should help each other more, because we live in a society and you can’t do it alone.” – Alpha (10)