Now or Never
Future of Us x
California Institute of
Integral Studies
San Francisco, 2026
Created for Future of Us, Now or Never was a seven-circuit botanical labyrinth designed around questions of civic imagination, agency, and what becomes possible when people are invited to participate differently.
Rather than functioning as a quiet retreat alone, the labyrinth was conceived as a participatory experience. Visitors moved through a sequence of prompts, reflected on what felt fixed or assumed permanent, identified one small action they were willing to begin, and contributed flowers and commitments that gradually transformed the installation over the course of the gathering.
Gathering Focus
Future of Us brought people together to explore civic imagination, participation, and agency.
The labyrinth was created as a place within the gathering where participants could step out of the pace of programming, reflect on what felt fixed or possible, and consider what they were willing to move forward.
Design Response
I created a seven-circuit botanical labyrinth designed as a participatory, rather than purely contemplative, experience.
The foundation was intentionally built in a restrained palette, using quieter whites, greens, and light purples. I held back the dahlias, snapdragons, bluebells, and other vivid flowers for participants, encouraging them to bring the color into the labyrinth themselves.
I also wanted the experience to carry a sense of abundance and generosity. Participants were invited not only to add flowers to the labyrinth, but also to make small bouquets to take with them.
The experience extended beyond the path. A reflection lounge with rugs, pillows, blankets, and low stools kept participants physically close to the ground and to the labyrinth, offering a place to rest, write, or simply remain with the experience before returning to the larger gathering.
Facilitation was intentionally light but present. I introduced participants to the labyrinth, framed the prompts, led a brief grounding breath before the walk, and invited people to use the lounge and other elements of the space in whatever way felt useful to them.
Together, the spatial design, botanical materials, prompts, and facilitation created structure without prescribing what participants should experience or conclude.
Made Possible.
People did more than walk the labyrinth.
They lingered. Some sat quietly or rested in the reflection lounge. Some slept. People returned to the labyrinth, added flowers, lit candles, wrote commitments, and took their time, without seeming in a hurry to move on.
As participants introduced dahlias, snapdragons, bluebells, and other bright flowers, the labyrinth gradually changed from the restrained structure I had built into something more colorful and collective. Individual gestures accumulated into a visible record of participation.
The commitment board offered another kind of record. By the end of the gathering, it was filled with participants’ responses to what they wanted to begin, change, or carry forward.
The Idea Behind Now or Never
As one of Future of Us’s future culture fellows reimagining civic culture, I wanted to explore agency. Not as an abstract idea, but as something we exercise through choice.
Throughout the labyrinth, participants were asked to make a series of small decisions: how to enter, how to move, what to consider, whether to pause, what flower to choose, where to place it, what to contribute, and what intention or action to name for themselves.
Individually, none of these choices was large. But they accumulated. Participants could see their own decisions altering the experience and, alongside the choices of others, gradually changing the labyrinth itself.
That was central to my response to the question of how we might reimagine civic engagement. When larger forces can make individual action feel insignificant, I wanted to create an experience in which people could practice recognizing and exercising their own agency. Small choices can gather momentum. Individual actions can accumulate. And from that accumulation and its momentum, something larger can begin.
The labyrinth did not tell participants what action to take. It gave them an experience of choosing, seeing that choice matter, and leaving with one choice of their own to carry forward.