Annual Systemic Design Symposium

RELATING
SYSTEMS THINKING
AND DESIGN

A foundation for the emergence of research and inquiry

October 13-16, 2022

RSD11

A hybrid event
Hosted by the University of Brighton

Papers & Presentations
Deadline: May 30, 2022

October 28 online | November 4&5 Zürich

RSDX

Architecture
Hosted by ETH Zurich | TU Wien | AHO Oslo

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Annual Systemic Design Symposium

Relating
Systems Thinking
and Design

A foundation for the emergence of research and inquiry

October 13-16, 2022

RSD11

A hybrid event, hosted by the University of Brighton

Papers & Presentations
Deadline: May 30, 2022

RSD News

RSD11 – Possibilities & Practices

Editors Goran Matic, Cheryl May, and Ben Sweeting: 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.

RSD12 Concept—October 9–20, 2023

Save the date. RSD12 is envisioned as a two-week programme, excluding weekends. The Georgetown proposal is a multi-event symposia concept, connecting systemic design hubs around the world in a sequence of in-person, online, and hybrid sessions. Hub symposia are augmented by a four-hour online program dedicated to full papers and emergent programming.

RSD12 Call for Hubs: Expression of Interest and FAQs

The Systemic Design Association and Georgetown University are ready to receive Expressions of Interest from partner organizations to host one or multiple days of RSD12 as part of the collaborative hub model envisioned for October 2023. Please submit your EoI before March 1, 2023.

RSD12 Georgetown Update

RSD12 organising institution announced—Georgetown University, USA. This year, the RSD12 hub model invites multiple hosts to submit interest in presenting their chosen themes.

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RSD11: Possibilities and Practices of Systemic Design

Registration May 2022

Drop us a line in the chat

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?

RSDX: Architecture within trans-scalar Systemic Design of Regenerative Cultures

Registration May 2022

The hybrid format will include several levels of participation and, following the event, an open-source resource on RSDsymposium.org.

In these highly dynamic and complex times, we increasingly realise the interconnectedness within systems of practice. The built environment as our focal systems scale is a meaningful and rich illustration of requiring an even faster and stronger shift in designing for regeneration – in its culture, encompassing practice and training. RSDX Architecture focuses on interdisciplinary and systems-thinking/doing culture to the theme of regenerative design in the context of architecture and the social-ecological environment across scales of governance and space.

The symposium features a set of pre-recorded provocations provided by a group of contributors. Day one features online participatory fishbowl conversations, which are also open to interested observers. Contributors are also invited to a two-day in-person event centered around an outdoor exploration of the building-community-landscape scale in a Zurich nearby mountain location.

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. 

RSD11: Possibilities and Practices of Systemic Design

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?

Registration May 2022

Drop us a line in the chat

Systemic design's open access repository

The Systemic Design Association convenes the annual Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium and publishes the entire proceedings as a repository of leading work in systemic design. RSDsymposium.org is the official RSDX event website and proceedings publication platform. It is an SDA publishing initiative and part of the SDA publications spiral, including Contexts – The Systemic Design Journal, launching this year. SDA also collaborates with other journals to advance RSD papers and promotes SDA members' authored works, including book publications.

If you have any questions or need help locating a resource, please reach out using the direct chat icon.

Read more about the repository

Systemic design's open access repository

The Systemic Design Association convenes the annual Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium and publishes the entire proceedings as a repository of leading work in systemic design. RSDsymposium.org is the official RSDX event website and proceedings publication platform. It is an SDA publishing initiative and part of the SDA publications spiral, including Contexts – The Systemic Design Journal, launching this year. SDA also collaborates with other journals to advance RSD papers and promotes SDA members' authored works, including book publications.

If you have any questions or need help locating a resource, please reach out using the direct chat icon.

Read more about the repository