Chris Luebkeman

Architect, Engineer, Designer of the Built Environment

BIG IDEAS

• Drivers of Change
  Chris outlines the meta-trends shaping our world. Based on results of workshops with more than 75,000 participants on five continents, the presentation includes an interactive session in which the audience prioritizes its drivers. The goal? To encourage deeper consideration of the forces driving global change and the role that all of us can play in creating a more sustainable future.
• Can you imagine…?
  This multi-media-rich presentation addresses how “the future is oversold and under imagined.” It closes with an interactive session that calls on audience members to add their own “imaginations for the future” before Chris shares others from previous presentations.
• Innovation on Demand
  The design industry is expected to provide “innovation on demand.” This program explores Arup’s initiatives to support a culture of innovation throughout the world. It also examines the paradox of risk-free innovation. How to do it? Can this last? How has Arup has done it, and how will innovation carry us through to the next wave?
• Sustainable Urbanization
  According to the United Nations, half the world's population live in urban areas. This trend will continue....or will it? Do we understand the global implications of urbanization and the systems required to underpin our “city societies?” This presentation looks at some of the current global efforts to both design new cities and adapt existing cities to the new era of dwindling resources.
• __________ of the Future
  Fill in the blank! Chris has presented this talk in multiple categories: as Transportation of the Future, Hotels of the Future, Retailing of the Future, Schools of the Future, and Airports of the Future. In each case, he challenges preconceptions of the continued evolution of place and space.

SNAPSHOT BIO

Dr. Chris Luebkeman is a bridge builder of many kinds. He is a third generation educator, formally trained as a geologist, structural engineer and architect, who believes that successful design cannot be separated from breadth of knowledge and steadfast inquiry. Chris speaks widely to the issues of sustainability and thoughtful design. He applies the lessons learned in the design of the built environment to businesses of all kinds. His keynotes, workshops, and strategy sessions are created for executives seeking better design sensibility for their products, services, and processes. Through his unique user-centric methods, Chris helps clients better understand the needs and desires of consumers, customers, and citizens.

Chris runs the Global Foresight + Innovation initiative at Arup, a global design and engineering firm and a leading creative force behind many of the world's most innovative projects and structures. In his role, he conceives new ways of building—recyclable buildings, reusable offices, and furniture that can decompose—and works with some of the world’s largest companies to develop what he calls ‘plausible futures’ to better understand the opportunities that change is creating for them in the built environment.

In his book, Drivers of Change 2009, Chris and the Foresight team at Arup look at 50 important factors that will affect our world, arranged in a framework known as STEEP (social, technological, economic, environmental and political). Designed as a collection of notecards, the book provides a tool for developing business strategy, brainstorming, education, or simply to think creatively and holistically. The cards are designed to encourage deeper consideration of the forces driving global change and the role that individuals can play in creating a more sustainable future.

A Closer Look at Chris

FOCUS AREAS
What's on Chris's current research agenda?

Chris is constantly looking ahead. He’s fascinated by the evolution of change on the built environment. How will urbanization (and doubling populations) affect design and the ways people shop, play, love, and eat? What are some of the leading drivers of change that will affect our future?

Chris is working on understanding the fundamental issues of carbon neutrality on the physical and social infrastructures of our world.

ENGAGEMENTS
How have other organizations utilized Chris's expertise, and what's ahead on his schedule?

A sampling of Chris’s past and future engagements includes:

• the World Renewable Energy Conference
• the Finnish National Research Institute
• the EuroLab Conference (to discuss the laboratory building of the future)
• the International Hotel Investment Forum
• Institution of Highways and Transportation
• The Royal Academy of Engineering
• Danish Building Innovation Fun
• “drivers of change” and innovation workshops all over the world

SPHERE OF INFLUENCE
Who shapes Chris's thinking and inspires his work?

Chris is inspired by George Washington Carver, nature, people he meets on the street, and his family.

RECOMMENDED READING
What's on Chris's must-read list?

• Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power, by Niall Ferguson
• The Ecology of Commerce, by Paul Hawken
• Not by Money Alone: Economics as Nature Intended, Malcolm by Slesser and Jane King
• Saving the Planet without Costing the Earth, by Donnachadh MaCarthy
• A Brief History of Tomorrow, by Jonathan Margolis
• Goodbye Bafana, by James Gregory

MIND FUEL
Which blogs, web sites, and industry events does Chris tap into to feed his mind and fuel his creativity?

• TED (http://www.ted.com/)
• GreenBuild (http://www.greenbuildexpo.org/)
• BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/)

OUTREACH
What are Chris's pressing questions, and on which topics does he seek your feedback?

Chris asks the public to share ideas with him about how the world will look in 100 years.