Reimagining the future of transport with young innovators at XLabs

This August we had the opportunity to deliver an XLabs workshop for Priority One’s yia! Awards in Tauranga  - focused on developing the skills of rangatahi in designing thinking by reimagining a circular future for their region. 

The yia! Awards are an annual program run in the Western Bay of Plenty Region that highlights and fosters innovative thinking of intermediate and high school-aged rangatahi. This program helps support them for the future of work in an ever-changing world.

A huge range of local businesses support this program led by Priority One, Western Bay of Plenty’s economic development organisation, alongside Blue Lab, Woods, Instep, Cucumber and Toi Kai Rawa and the Shine Collective. Kudos to these organisations who provided their time, expertise, and staff who joined the XLabs workshop as volunteers at the stunning University of Waikato campus in Tauranga.

Circularity was invited to adapt our XLabs circular design sprint format into a jam-packed half-day workshop as a prize for the 86 final selected young innovators, with a design challenge that related to their own lives. With a lot of our mahi recently being in the region, we have been hearing firsthand and experiencing the traffic, the lack of diverse and accessible transport infrastructure, and the need for cleaner transport options. This inspired us to focus our workshop on empowering these innovators with the following design challenge:

“How might we redesign your journey around Tauranga to be circular?”

Kicking off our time together we asked them to map the journey of how they each arrived at the XLabs workshop using a map of the region to identify which modes of transportation they used and what barriers they faced in getting here.

This enabled us to draw out insights around the challenges of the transport status quo for these young people, such as concerns around safety, getting lost, and the role that technology can play in solving these. We then created a series of how might we …questions for the teams to choose.

Armed with their chosen design challenge, the teams began to love the problem, ideate solutions, prototype and build their solutions, and then pitch their solutions using circular principles across a series of XLabs exercises. All in four hours!

We introduced circular and regenerative concepts for transport using our Circular by Design methods - an innovation toolkit we created to help unlock the $4.5 trillion circular economy opportunity. We highlighted innovations in smart materials like bio fuels, the importance of technology in creating applications that motivate car access over ownership, and how design for disassembly and repair is an effective way to manage resources.

Inspired by these we guided the teams through individual ideation using an exercise called crazy six’s - asking them to draw one idea in 1 minute to solve the challenge they selected. As a result, they had six ideas in six minutes which they then selected their favourite to share back with their team who ultimately selected one to then build a prototype for.

In less than an hour of ideation and prototyping , all the teams were ready to present their circular solutions that would enable Tauranga Moana to be circular.

These included -

  • A two story world, where the top surface if for living, walking and biking, with an underground system for transportation, with transport elevators located in hotspots around the city - leaving large areas vehicle free. This team identified that the most congestion in the region could be solved with one tunnel that directly took traffic to the beach between the Mount and Papamoa.

  • An individual pod system (The ‘E Bubble’) that you can order (with safety and accessibility features online), that runs on electric-powered tram lines that are added to outer lanes of existing roads.

  • Tram-like track system for bikers to connect physically and log in to their destination without having to direct themselves, or get in the way of other vehicles

  • A carpool app, where kids can book a ride with parents/known guardians that have been vetted by the school’s community

  • A car share service app, where users in the region encourage sharing their car space with others in the community to reduce private vehicle use. The ‘Rideshare’ app allows all forms of transport; cars, trucks, utes, e-bikes and more…

  • Safety pods darted evenly around the region for those who can’t find transport nearby (or within a reasonable time) and need a safe hang-out space while they wait, or organise an alternative. This safe space has all the essentials; chargers, first aid, air pump and bike tools, water, wifi, and maps - no matter the situation the safety pod has got you!

  • A circular grid city with a more evenly distributed design for public transport, alongside an app to help connect users quicker than ever between the zones around Tauranga with all heavy vehicles and cars going underground.

  • A Lime Tube, an underground electric-powered tube located around the hotspots of Tauranga Moana to quicken travel for the masses.

  • Electric-powered trams that are self-driven, powered by AI, and panels that are located on top of buildings around the CBD

  • A walk-share app, where users can find buddies to walk safely to-and-from destinations with to make their journeys safer.

What did we learn in the process of delivering this XLabs workshop on the future of transport?

Through their future designs young people were able to share powerful insights about their fears of safety, getting lost and how absolutely adamant they were that vehicles/ trucks needed to go underground (unless they became a shared resource) because they were destroying their ability to enjoy their beautiful city and region. 

Post workshop, we reflected that rangatahi in the region may not have had the freedom to explore their streets independently since COVID-19  - instead relying heavily on parents or guardians to drive them around. As they designed the future of transport we were able to learn this came down to three things - lack of trustworthy public transport, safety concerns when on the move, and knowing where to go (note that having Google Maps on their phone did not meet their concerns of getting lost). 

It was also insightful to consider that with fewer kids spent out walking, riding bikes and taking buses, the more they spent time in cars, and the more cars in general, created even more concerns about the safety of getting around.

How can we break this cycle? 

It was a personal highlight for both Louise and Mia to create the space for these talented high school students to redesign the future of transport to be circular in their own region.

Kudos to the Priority One Western Bay of Plenty team and all the sponsors of this incredible program that prepares kids for the future of work.

If you are working with young people or even not-so-young people, we welcome the opportunity to bring XLabs to you…let us help you reimagine the future with this award-winning program!


“ I really believe in the opportunity that we have to redesign a very different future, and that should start with young people. Young people are greatly concerned by climate change. Some of their concerns around these things are really different from those of us that have grown up in this linear world. This is a new world they need to reimagine so yia! provides this incredible opportunity to not only create design thinking skills for the future of work, but give the kids the tools to apply those to any problem they’re facing. This is the generation that will reimagine and hold us accountable for a very different future.” - Louise Nash

Mia HendersonCircular Future, Circular Design, Collaboration