Annual Systemic Design Symposium

RELATING
SYSTEMS THINKING
AND DESIGN

A foundation for the emergence of research and inquiry

As designers look to address systemic challenges, they must wrestle with tensions and conflicting requirements within their practices and the situations they seek to change. Systemic questions cannot be approached one at a time in isolation. Yet, it is inevitable that design is partial in its engagements – to address everything is implausible or uncritical to implicit boundary judgements and the privileges of dominant perspectives. Unpredictable interdependencies require a cautious approach, yet incremental strategies risk entrenching underlying errors and injustices by making the status quo more palatable. Profound, long-term changes are needed, but the urgency of the present also demands immediately achievable actions. At RSD11, we look to expand further systemic design’s modes of working:

• Systemic design has thus far drawn primarily on methodological and organisational aspects of systems thinking as a way of handling complexity. In what ways might other perspectives augment systemic approaches?
• The systems field is open to the creative arts, countercultural movements, enactive cognitive science, family therapy, posthumanism, and others. How might these transdisciplinary connections further enrich and critique systemic design research and practice?

Organised by ETH Zurich, TU Wien, and AHO Oslo, this special RSDX symposium will elaborate transformative action for more systemic practices in architecture to foster regenerative cultures across scales of governance and space.