As part of the Museo del Futuro (Museum of the Future) project launched by the Mexico City Initiative at Harvard GSD, over 100 young people from Tláhuac and Iztapalapa collaborated in 2012 on a participatory artistic and speculative design process to imagine the past, present, and future of their city.

This phase of the project centered around the collective creation of a Time Machine, a mobile, sculptural museum made up of 14 steel "cells" — designed both as a symbolic return vessel for the fictional curators from 2068, and as a tool for youth-led storytelling and imagination.

Methodology

Through a series of creative summer workshops led by local educators and artists, youth explored a wide range of media including:

• Recycled art
• Sculpture
• Dance and movement
• Storytelling and oral histories

Each "cell" of the machine was filled with youth-generated content, representing their visions of Mexico City's past struggles, present realities, and possible futures, socially, environmentally, and culturally.

Once completed, the Time Machine traveled between the youth centers in both districts, acting as a catalyst for community conversations and public events focused on imagining Mexico City in 2068.

Outcomes

• Creation of a collective speculative artwork centered on urban futures and memory
• Youth participants gained skills in art, narrative, and collaborative design
• The mobile museum format fostered intergenerational dialogue about the city's trajectory
• The project challenged top-down visions of the future, empowering young people from marginalized neighborhoods to co-author urban imaginaries
• Demonstrated the power of fiction, fabrication, and play as tools for critical urban inquiry and civic participation

Examples of Narratives from 2068

• A City rewilded: Youth imagined a future where parts of Mexico City had been reforested and rivers restored, with public parks replacing abandoned industrial zones. The city learned to coexist with nature after decades of water crises and air pollution.
• Social justice through design: Some cells envisioned a radically inclusive city where public spaces were co-designed by residents, especially in marginalized neighborhoods. Youth imagined new forms of housing, education, and care systems based on solidarity and mutual aid.
• Remembering the struggles: Several pieces reflected on the violence and inequality of the early 21st century, suggesting that in 2068, communities regularly gather in the Time Machine to remember and reflect on past injustices to avoid repeating them.
• Technological futures rooted in culture: Youth proposed hybrid futures where Indigenous knowledge, local traditions, and new technologies work together, for example, floating farms and solar-powered markets rooted in chinampa agriculture.