Futura Time
Machine: Coimbra
Public Imagination Forum · Friday 9 October
We traveled to Coimbra 2050, a city of citizens. One day. 100 people. 3 time travelers. One map of Coimbra 2050 co-designed by the people who love this city, and handed to the people who run it.
Participants shared their voices in imagining and shaping the future of Coimbra.
Futura Time Machine Coimbra’s Public Imagination Forum was a one-day journey to 2050 Coimbra, led by three time travellers — Jon Alexander, Katy Rubin and Luís de Matos.
From different disciplines and different countries, these time travellers came together to tell stories of their experiences.
Time Travellers
Writer, Strategist & Storyteller
Jon
AlexanderAuthor of the book Citizens, Jon Alexander is a well known voice on participatory democracy and the power of citizens. Watch his Ted Talk on How citizens (not politicians) are building the future.
Creative Civic Change Practitioner
Katy
RubinKaty Rubin works with governments across the UK and internationally to implement and advance Legislative Theatre: a participatory democracy process that’s joyful, inclusive, and accessible. She created The People Act: a new resource hub for Legislative Theatre.
Magician and Performing Artist
Luís de
MatosLuís de Matos is the most well known Portuguese magician, making the impossible, possible through his show Impossible.
Time Partners
Researcher
Roberto FalangaRoberto is a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, exploring how citizens can shape public policy through more inclusive democratic participation.
Complexity & Futures Lead
Henrique Nascimento Henrique is co-founder of Transformative Times and Design Lead at With Company, exploring how technology and design can shape our near future, drawing on systemic and complexity thinking.
What was the agenda of the day?
-
Through creative and participatory methods — collaborative drawing, role-play, and exercises in urban imagination and utopia — everyone who entered the Time Machine was invited to draw the citizen-designed futures of the city.
We tested ideas and sparked curiosity, awakened the imagination and co-created together, transforming Coimbra into a shared canvas through collaborative drawing, role-play, and legislative theater.The outcome of every Time Machine is the city’s 2050 themed map, delivered to the leadership of the city, where trust is built with intention and democracy is shared imagination.
Friday 9 October
Arrival & Check-in: Boarding the Time Machine
12:00
Citizenship & Food
Food heritage scholar João Pedro Gomes, in collaboration with immigrant chefs, showed us the relationship between food and democracy. We enjoyed flavors from India, Brazil, & Angola, and considered the contributions of immigrants to the cultural richness of Portugal.
12:30 - 14:30
Opening by Futura: Time Travel to 2050 with Graça Fonseca, Futura’s Chief Imagination Officer, former Portugal Minister of Culture, and Ruth Shaber, President of Futura
14:30 - 14:45
Setting the Challenges of Coimbra 2050 with Futura Fellows
14:45 - 15:00
Participatory Democracy with Jon Alexander, Author & international Citizen Strategist
Jon Alexander, Citizen Strategist, international public speaker and Author of Citizens, took us on a tour around the world and showed us what participatory democracy looks like, and show us how citizens (not politicians) are building the future.
15:00 - 16:00
Legislative Theatre with Katy Rubin, international Creative Civic Change Practitioner
Katy Rubin introduced us to the practice of Legislative Theatre and used it to tackle two challenges of Coimbra identified by the Time Machine Coimbra Fellows. Participants took part in this participatory, community-based art form that uses drama and roleplay to help citizens and policymakers co-create new laws and policy changes.
16:00 - 18:00
Making the Impossible Possible with Luís de Matos, Portugal’s most-loved Magician
Luís de Matos, a magician & artist known throughout Portugal, brought his performance art and storytelling to explore the question: “How do we make the impossible possible when we are working together to build a new future?”
18:00 - 19:00
Closing: Time Travel back to the present with surprise Coimbra guests
19:00 - 19:30
On Oct 9, we came together to imagine the future of Coimbra.
The Futura Time Machine Fellowship brought together young, early-career Portuguese women interested in changing the world. The Fellowship took place the day before our Time Machine Public Imagination Forum in Coimbra.
FAQS
-
Futura Time Machine is a collective journey, where science, art and imagination meet to answer one question: how do we want our city to be in 2050? Hosted by Futura Foundation, we’re traveling across Portugal to collectively imagine possible futures at the intersection of sustainability, social justice, art & democracy. Futura Time Machine is a crowdsourced event series traveling through Porto, Coimbra, Évora, and Lisboa.
-
People from different generations and backgrounds, with one thing in common: the conviction that a city isn't something that happens to us — it's something we make.
Are you someone who wants to imagine, design, and co-create the future of your city? Are you eager to learn more about participatory democracy, and citizen-centered design? Do you love Coimbra and are you invested in its future?
The Futura Time Machine is not a conference. It's a journey where the imagination about the future comes to life, and where each participant stops being a spectator and becomes an author of the city that is yet to come. If you want to design the future of your city, Time Machine is for you.
-
No expertise required — only the courage to imagine
-
Yes, we encourage people to speak either in Portuguese or English. There will be people that can help with translations. However, some of the talks will be fully in english due to the native language of the speakers.
-
You’ll leave Time Machine not only having shared your voice in the vision of Coimbra’s future, but you’ll walk away with new skills and new ways of thinking you can bring into your work and life. You’ll learn participatory democracy and design thinking concepts, participatory and co-creation collaboration processes, collaborative drawing, role-play, exercises in urban imagination, creative thinking legislative theater tools, and you’ll meet so many really amazing people that care as much about your city as you do. Above all, you’ll meet people like you that believe Coimbra's future doesn't happen by chance. It's built. Together.
-
Yes, it is free for the first 100 people registered.
-
We have prepared this experience as a full day journey. To make the most of it we strongly recommend to come the full day.
-
Yes, lunch is included for the registered people.
-
Yes, parking is available at the venue for participants.
-
The Imagination Forum takes place on the first floor and the building does not have a lift, so access is by stairs. We're sorry we can't offer step-free access to this space. If you have reduced mobility and would like to join us, please contact us at timemachine@futurafoundation.org — we'll find the best way to accommodate you.
-
The collective ideas turned into actual scenarios and proposals are handed back to the city and to the people that can make them happen.
See what we did in Porto in our events tab.
Coimbra, Portugal October 9 2026
Coimbra, Portugal October 9 2026
