An international exhibition of speculative design projects that reimagine the future of Ahmedabad's historical sites, born from a unique collaboration between students from India and Israel.
Opening Date: November 27, 2025
Venue: Photographic Gallery at the Department of Photographic Communications, Jerusalem Interdisciplinary College
Date: January, 2026
Venue: Interaction Design Department at Anant National University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Welcome to Future Meets Past, an international exhibition of speculative design. This showcase is the culmination of a groundbreaking course between the Interaction Design departments of Anant National University (Ahmedabad, India) and Hadassah Academic College (Jerusalem, Israel). Students from two distinct cultures came together to explore a shared challenge: how can we use the tools of the future to understand, preserve, and question our relationship with the past?
The process began on-site in Ahmedabad, where students used photogrammetry to create high-fidelity digital twins of historical landmarks like the Dada Harir Ni Vaav stepwell. This tangible data of the past became the raw material for imagining the future. Guided by frameworks like Critical Design, Design Fiction, and Worldbuilding, the six student teams then produced a series of immersive "future imaginations".
In this exhibition, you will experience VR narratives that explore water scarcity , speculative artifacts from a bio-digital future , augmented reality experiences that reveal hidden histories, and critical stories that question the role of AI in our lives. Each project is a provocation, designed to make us think critically about the paths we are on and the many possible futures that lie ahead.