Future Humans Lab™ (FHL) is a framework for human development towards regenerative futures.

The framework is organized around six dimensions. Together, they offer a holistic approach to navigating an increasingly complex, interconnected, and uncertain world.

Capacity

Future Humans Lab aims to cultivate the capacities needed to navigate complexity, adapt to change, and contribute to regenerative futures.

Place

Learning begins where we are. Local ecosystems, cultures, communities, and bioregions provide the context through which global challenges become tangible.

Relationships

Human development unfolds through relationships—with ourselves, one another, our communities, and the more-than-human world.

Participation

Understanding is deepened through participation, observation, dialogue, experimentation, and reflection—not knowledge alone.

Integration

The framework draws from diverse disciplines and ways of knowing, recognizing that today's challenges cannot be understood through any single perspective.

Uncertainty

The future cannot be predicted. The framework is designed to help people respond thoughtfully and resiliently to uncertainty rather than prepare for a single outcome.

Framework Overview

A visual introduction to the purpose, structure, and core ideas of Future Humans Lab.

Research Foundation

The complete capstone research exploring the educational, developmental, ecological, and philosophical foundations of the framework.

FHL was developed as the capstone project for the Master of Arts in Sustainable Design program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). The research explores how systems thinking, ecological literacy, and regenerative design can inform human development in an era defined by increasing complexity, uncertainty, and interconnected social and ecological challenges.