Living Worlds
A coral-stone town on the Swahili coast in golden light, rooftop gardens with small solar panels and dhows coming into harbour.

The 2040s and 2060s · Imagined: the Swahili coast, the 2040s · Imagined

Mending Town

Nothing is thrown away.

The law of Mending Town

Nothing is thrown away.

Imagine a coral-stone town on the Swahili coast in the 2040s. Neighbours mend the roofs together and grow food on them, and the dhows still come home on the wind, with a little help from the sun.

An elderly boatbuilder shaping a dhow plank on the shore while his granddaughter hands him a tool.

A life in Mending Town · composite, based on the record

A boatbuilder, seventy-three

He is building his last dhow by hand. His granddaughter hands him the tools and already knows their names.

Meanwhile, in the same age

Futures, imagined

Restored stone terraces of potatoes, maize and quinoa curving down an Andean valley in early light, farmers at work, snow peaks above.

The Terraces

Imagined: the Andes, the 2060s

A double-hulled voyaging canoe with pandanus sails on the open Pacific at dusk.

Which world will you live in?

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