System shifting the design studio: Educating regenerative future practitioners

Jones, Matthew; Browne, Jemma

Abstract

Published in 2021, the UK Design Council’s Beyond Net Zero report identified that designers are ‘not yet using their skills and resources to deliberately support the green transition in the way that they should and could’. A rising awareness of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental and social injustice has brought into sharp relief the urgent need for design to explore radical solutions to address these complex systemic and intersectional challenges - to ‘system-shift design’ .

Design Council’s Systemic Design Framework captures six principles to guide this shift: people and planet centred, zooming in and out, testing and growing ideas, inclusive and welcoming difference, collaborating and connecting, and circular and regenerative. While primarily aimed at industry, this paper explores the application of the Framework through two educational case studies drawn from Co.LAB, Birmingham School of Architecture & Design’s interdisciplinary live project initiative: High Street 2030, a collaboration with social innovation lab CoLab Dudley, and Frameworks for Environmental Justice, a collaboration with Birmingham City Council and the Dolphin Women’s Centre.

The paper argues for the potential of combining design thinking with systems thinking to co-create reimaginings of our built environments in ways that are both environmentally and socially regenerative. It reveals the potential of systemic design, as captured in the framework, as a threshold concept with potential for a deep personal and professional impact, shaping the attitude and mindsets of individuals as well as their professional trajectories toward regenerative futures.

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: Not Too Late: Design Thinking for Ecological Futures’, the 12th annual conference of the All-Ireland Architecture Research Group (AIARG)
• Start Date: Apr 13, 2023
• End Date: Apr 14, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jul 1, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/14619840