Daniel Wahl explores ways of relating to the many converging crises and opportunities faced by humanity at a local, regional and global scale. He invites us to step back from our tendency to want quick-fix solutions. Will they - rather than systemic transformation - offer the culture change needed? Through the lenses of transformative innovation, whole systems thinking, ecological design, and transformative resilience, the book explores pathways towards a regenerative culture.

A new approach to addressing the contemporary world’s most difficult challenges, such as climate change and poverty. Conflicts over “the problem” and “the solution” plague the modern world and land problem solvers in what has been called “wicked problem territory”—a social space with high levels of conflict over problems and solutions. In Design Strategy, Nancy C. Roberts proposes design as a strategy of problem solving to close the gap between an existing state and a desired state. Utilizing this approach, designers and change agents are better able to minimize self-defeating conflicts over problems and solutions, break the logjam of opposition, and avoid the traps that lock problem solvers into a never-ending cycle of conflict. Design as a field continues to grow and evolve, but Design Strategy focuses on three levels of design where “wicked problems” tend to lurk—strategic design (of private and public organizations), systemic design (of networked and overlapping economic, technical, political, and social subsystems), and regenerative design (of life-giving realignment between humanity and nature). Within this framework, Roberts presents refreshingly interdisciplinary case studies that integrate theory and practice across diverse fields to guide professionals in any domain—from business and nonprofit organizations to educational and healthcare systems—and finally offers hope that humanity can tackle the existential challenges we face in the twenty-first century.

This book discusses the way to design and plan for regenerative cities and landscapes. Where sustainability aims to safeguard the resources for future generations, and the resilience concept focuses on dealing with shocks to keep the system functioning, regeneration aims to give back more than it takes from the system. This principle is often used in analytical and assessment literature, but not yet elaborated in a spatial planning and design context, which this book does. It offers insights from a range of perspectives, spatial scales, such as the country level, neighbourhood public space, streets and the building levels, scientific fields and continents, amongst which Africa, Oceania, and Europe.

We are in a decisive decade that demands more inspired and informed practitioners who can use positive futures to rebalance the present. The book you hold seeks to be a thought‐provoking approach to imagine, create, and lead the journey to a more sustainable world – where a spectrum of choices, including regenerative practices, await conscientious citizens, companies, and communities. With this objective, and to help reverse the megatrends of economic disparity, social injustice, and climate change, the Institute for the Future (IFTF) and the Design Department of the Politecnico di Milano came together to prototype an approach to prepare all practitioners who seek to leverage the future to infuse our present with more impact and agency. Guided by global experts and inspired by a growing network of future‐makers, the authors share essential insights from this emerging landscape, offering thought‐provoking theory, innovative experiments, real‐world experiences, and practitioner stories. We draw insight and inspiration from many contemporary theories and practices, including strategic foresight, experiential futures, speculative design, design fiction, systems design, participatory design, and transformative leadership, and an emerging entry with genAI‐augmented design. Regardless of whether you have a design or management background, or want to create a for‐profit or non‐profit, this book enables professionals across industries, as well as students preparing for a career in strategy, innovation, or transformation, the knowledge, skills, and confidence to strengthen resilience and guide the transition to the more sustainable practices of a better world.

The notion of ecology has become central to contemporary design discourse. This reflects contemporary concerns for our planet and a new understanding of the primary entanglement of the human species with the rest of the world. The use of the term ‘ecology’ with design tends to refer to how to integrate ecologies into design and cities and be understood in a biologically-scientific and technical sense. In practice, this scientific-technical knowledge tends to be only loosely employed. The notion of ecology is also often used metaphorically in relation to the social use of space and cities. This book argues that what it calls the ‘biological’ and ‘social’ senses of ecology are both important and require distinctly different types of knowledge and practice. It proposes that science needs to be taken much more seriously in ‘biological ecologies’, and that ‘social ecologies’ can now be understood non-metaphorically as assemblages. Furthermore, this book argues that design practice itself can be understood much more rigorously, productively and relevantly if understood ecologically. The plural term ‘ecologies design’ refers to these three types of ecological design. This book is unique in bringing these three perspectives on ecological design together in one place. It is significant in proposing that a strong sense of ecologies design practice will only follow from the interconnection of these three types of practice. Ecologies Design brings together leading international experts and relevant case studies in the form of edited research essays, case studies and project work. It provides an overarching critique of current ecologically-oriented approaches and offers evidence and exploration of emerging and effective methods, techniques and concepts. It will be of great interest to academics, professionals and students in the built environment disciplines.

Biomimicry for Materials, Design and Habitats: Innovations and Applications and is a survey of the recent work of recognized experts in a variety of fields who employ biomimicry and related paradigms to solve key problems of interest within design, science, technology, and society. Topics covered include innovations from biomimicry in materials, product design, architecture, and biological sciences. The book is a useful resource for educators, designers, researchers, engineers, and materials scientists, taking them from the theory behind biomimicry to real world applications. Living systems have evolved innovative solutions to challenges that humans face on a daily basis. Nonlinear multifunctional systems that have a symbiotic relationship with their environment are the domain of nature. Morphological solutions for buildings inspired by nature can be used for skins, surfaces, and structures to facilitate environmental adaptation of buildings to increase occupant comfort and reduce energy demands. Birds can teach us to produce novel structures, 3D printing can be informed by oysters and mussels, and mycelium may show us the way to fabricate new biocomposites in architecture. Therefore, it is in nature that we seek inspiration for the solutions to tomorrow's challenges. - Presents new directions in education and the various applications of biomimicry within industry, including bio-inspired entrepreneurship - Discusses the role of biomimicry in education, innovation, and product design - Covers applications in systems engineering and design, novel materials with applications in 3D printing, and bio-inspired architecture - Includes perspectives on sustainability detailing the role that bio-inspiration or biomimicry plays in sustainability

This companion investigates the ways in which designers, architects, and planners address ecology through the built environment by integrating ecological ideas and ecological thinking into discussions of urbanism, society, culture, and design. Exploring the innovation of materials, habitats, landscapes, and infrastructures, it furthers novel ecotopian ideas and ways of living, including human-made settings on water, in outer space, and in extreme environments and climatic conditions. Chapters of this extensive collection on ecotopian design are grouped under five different ecological perspectives: design manifestos and ecological theories, anthropocentric transformative design concepts, design connectivity, climatic design, and social design. Contributors provide plausible, sustainable design ideas that promote resiliency, health, and well-being for all living things, while taking our changing lifestyles into consideration. This volume encourages creative thinking in the face of ongoing environmental damage, with a view to making design decisions in the interest of the planet and its inhabitants. With contributions from over 79 expert practitioners, educators, scientists, researchers, and theoreticians, as well as planners, architects, and engineers from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, this book engages theory, history, technology, engineering, and science, as well as the human aspects of ecotopian design thinking and its implications for the outlook of the planet.

An exploration of how writers, artists, and filmmakers expose the costs and contest the assumptions of the Capitalocene era that guides readers through the rapidly developing field of Spanish environmental cultural studies. From the scars left by Franco's dams and mines to the toxic waste dumped in Equatorial Guinea, from the cruelty of the modern pork industry to the ravages of mass tourism in the Balearic Islands, this book delves into the power relations, material practices and social imaginaries underpinning the global economic system to uncover its unaffordable human and non-human costs. Guiding the reader through the rapidly emerging field of Spanish environmental cultural studies, with chapters on such topics as extractivism, animal studies, food studies, ecofeminism, decoloniality, critical race studies, tourism, and waste studies, an international team of US and European scholars show how Spanish writers, artists, and filmmakers have illuminated and contested the growth-oriented and neo-colonialist assumptions of the current Capitalocene era. Focussed on Spain, the volume also provides models for exploring the socioecological implications of cultural manifestations in other parts of the world.

Emerging Practices in Architectural Pedagogy explores the emergent techniques in architectural education that are helping to bridge the gap between the institutional setting and working practice. It demonstrates how teaching and learning can, and should, be directed towards tackling the real-world problems that students will encounter within their professional careers. Architectural and design practitioners are becoming less specialised, they are embracing cross-disciplinary connections and practical problem-solving. Architecture and design schools must align their teaching to reflect this changing world, and evolve from a fact-based acquisition process to a participatory method of learning. This book uses an extended case-study format to examine large-scale issues. Each chapter represents a specific mode of practice, which is linked to the wider debate on architectural and design pedagogy; this includes collaborative workshops and interventions, issues connected to sustainability and climate change, responses to rapid urbanisation, and, the creation of collaborative relationships across disciplines. The book has an international perspective, with contributions from the United Kingdom, United States of America, and Singapore, and includes a timely discussion on teaching in a remote climate. This book will be an invaluable resource for engaged academics and teaching practitioners interested in playing a key role in the future development of the architectural profession.

This book sets out the discussion on how cities can contribute solutions to some of the challenges the urbanised world is facing, such as the pressure of growing populations, mitigation of effects of, and adaptation to globally changing environmental, climate and public health conditions. Presenting a detailed explanation of the causes behind the current state of modern cities, the book advocates for a paradigm shift to improve the quality of life of ever-increasing urban inhabitants whilst nourishing the natural systems that sustain human and non-human life in the planet. Recognising the precious role that nature plays in the functioning of cities, it delves into the study of biophilic design and regenerative development. The book argues that these social-ecological design approaches can act as catalysts to develop conditions in urban settings that are beneficial for natural and human systems to thrive and flourish, both in ecosystem services and social-cultural systems. This is particularly relevant for the design of new quality precincts or the regeneration of degraded urban spaces to promote health, wellbeing and urban resilience. A framework is proposed to guide the process of thinking about, designing and building healthier, more liveable and resilient urban environments that raise the quality of life in cities. The method can be used by researchers, practitioners -urban designers, urban planners, architects and landscape architects- interested in developing their work within a social-ecological perspective. It can also be used by local governments and agencies to underpin policy making, and by educational institutions to prepare graduates with necessary skills to respond to current and future built environment challenges.