Family Day at Futurium

Programme Highlights

The Family Day starts outside on the forecourt, where visitors can build their own seed bombs, earwig hotels and adventurous structures. An improvisational theatre is going to transform the foyer into a “weekly market for swapping ideas for the future”. And it’s going to be just as exciting in the puppet theatre in the exhibition.

A podium discussion in the afternoon will focus on the dangers facing soils. Experts from science and real life will be discussing the topic with the audience and talking about possible approaches to finding solutions. This event will be conducted in German and German Sign Language.

Guided tours – some in simple German and German Sign Language – will provide compact bites of knowledge on the subject of agriculture and land use, while open-lab workshops will offer the opportunity to try out digital technologies, build things and tinker around. A relaxed atmosphere will be maintained throughout the day with the help of music and food.

New Exhibits in the Lab

Driving a tractor over a virtual field or exploring a digital field through the eyes of a bumblebee – the interactive stations of the exhibit “Double Harvest” invite everyone to learn about different perspectives on the challenges and solutions of future agricultural systems. Technically, this exhibit is based on the popular “Farming Simulator 22” created by Giants Software GmbH (© 2025). Behind the project are experts from TU Dresden’s Chair of Technical Design and the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research – ZALF, who developed the exhibit together with Futurium.

In the “Future Landscape Simulator”, land becomes a place for decision-making. What is weighted higher? Food production or biodiversity? Urban development or rewilding? The exhibit created by IMAGINARY opens up the possibility for visitors to become designers themselves. Landscapes emerge from the elements that created them: fields, forests, wetlands, settlements, solar fields. The physically built structures are brought to life in a digital projection. What changes when surfaces are used differently is shown here in real time: carbon dioxide is bound or released, species disappear or return, harvests increase or shrink.

“Shared Grounds” is an installation that was created with the participation of visitors in accompanying workshops, and which continues to grow steadily through contributions from the public. The focus of the installation is on the sustainable use of soil as the basis of life and as a key resource. With each new vision and each new prototype, the exhibit grows into a jointly developed image of possible futures. The workshops and the exhibition were designed by Archimedes Exhibitions (AMDX) in Berlin.

Also new to the Lab are two wall paintings that make visible what was previously hidden when looking at plants: the images use graphic research data to enable a different view of field plants and were created together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD. Plants are constantly sending signals in the form of colours and structures. Digital technologies make these signals visible. Cameras, sensors and algorithms pick up information that often remains invisible to the human eye.

Game

Another new addition is a game about the agriculture of the future – “Future Land”.

In order to supply a city and to make their farms fit for the future, the players have got to act economically, generate good yields and always have an eye on climate protection and biodiversity. Just like on a real field, hands are the best helpers when progress needs to be made on the farm. But it’s trickier than you think, because there are always challenges for which solutions need to be found.

Comic

In the new Futurium comic, the microbe Mika goes on exciting adventures. The illustrator will be one of the guests at the Family Day: with his help, visitors can invent and design their own comics.

„Superland“: The growing oasis on the Futurium forcourt

Since May 2025, an organic installation has been growing on Futurium’s forecourt: “Superland”. The green refuge consists of vine-covered trellises with plants on five levels. It forms a walk-in, living system that oscillates between science, nature and art and brings Futurium’s new thematic focus to life. Be it through highlighting food security or the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss, the installation presents building blocks for solutions and appeals to all the senses.

Thematic focus “Future Fields” at Futurium

Whether it’s our morning coffee or the cotton in our T-shirts – agriculture is deeply interwoven with our everyday lives. And yet, the way we deal with it is contradictory. On the one hand, we tend to take it for granted. On the other, it’s not unusual for us to be fundamentally critical of it. In any case, the situation is certainly complex: while agriculture secures the basis of our existence, it also contributes to global warming and endangers ecosystems. In a nutshell, agriculture is facing major challenges in terms of its future viability.

In the exhibition, the Lab and events, Futurium shows technological, social and nature-derived approaches as part of the thematic focus “Future Fields” – from artificial intelligence in arable farming to indoor farming and agroforestry methods. The new tour with the free digital audio guide will be taking visitors to all the highlights of the thematic focus in the House of Futures.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us for further information, interview requests, filming and photo permissions, as well as pictorial material. General pictorial material and further information can be found in the press section.