Silvia Barbero
Drawing on research and extensive cases from systemic design and the circular economy, the closing remarks by SDA Board Chair Silvia Barbero will consider the role of designers and systemic design in planetary health. By working with complexity, designers can play a pivotal role in making possible an urgent radical shift toward circularity and transformational change. The convergence of co-disciplinarity discourses, the application of systemic design in industrial production, and the critical importance of environmental sustainability are key points to be considered.
Drawing on climate change data and several current examples of managing complexity in systemic design, this presentation makes a case for the way forward:
Designers have a huge responsibility for planet health, so my intention is to give hope for the urgently needed radical shifts in and for planetary health by considering the potential for designers and systemic design to alter paradigms. – Silvia Barbero
Dr Silvia Barbero has been Chair of the Systemic Design Association since it was founded in 2018. She is the Deputy Coordinator of Design Programmes and associate professor at Politecnico di Torino (Italy), where she teaches in the Management, Production and Design PhD program, Systemic Design graduate programs and Design and Communication undergraduate program.
Silvia leads systemic design research in local economies, policy design, environmental production, and innovation through collaboration with companies, research centres, and national and international networks. In 2005, she co-founded the Observatory of Eco-Packaging. She leads the Systemic Design Lab in Politecnico di Torino. Silvia is the scientific coordinator of many European projects about sustainable development and circular economy. She is the author of numerous books, papers in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and reviewed international conference proceedings that you can find on her Politecnico di Torino profile.

Graphics by Chantal Spencer

Sketchnote by Patricia Kambitch | Playthink

Sketchnote by Patricia Kambitch | Playthink