Oliver’s daily(ish) blog on creativity, regenerative design and practical philosophy drawn from across my teaching, writing and collaborations. Sign up for his weekly digest by clicking here and choosing the appropriate button.
- Blowing hot air
One of my favourite design features at the Barbican Arts Centre is in the loos: a row of round sinks, set into polished concrete, with taps activated by foot pedals. … - 100 years oldToday my grandfather, Peter Cartwright, would have been 100 years old. He was a research chemist, but I always saw him as a Renaissance man, showing talents for a wide …
- Element designThere are over 250 chemical elements. But at a fooling workshop* today, I was reminded of the creative power of just four: earth, water, fire and air. Each one conjures …
- Serious humourYesterday I went to Grayson Perry’s brilliant Delusions of Grandeur exhibition at the Wallace Collection. If you work in Central London and can get there before it closes in October …
- Too long/too late?“Due to short platforms, the doors in the rear carriage will not open at the next station.” Whenever I hear this train announcement, I wonder if they could just as …
- Branching out (and clash detection)I read this in the Hidden Life of Trees. In a woodland canopy, if two trees of the same species are growing near to each other, their branches won’t overlap. …
- Cabin in the woods (a preview)
Tucked between Douglas Fir and regenerating birch, there’s a small green oak cabin at Hazel Hill Wood. From its windows and door, all you can see is woodland. The cabin … - Don’t scale up — scale rightThere are no factories in the living world. Or at least if there are, they are very well camouflaged. Humans, by contrast, are very attached to factories. By reducing variation …
- On scale, specialisation and life beyond pinsOne of the commonly-cited benefits of scaling-up an operation is to enable individuals to specialise Adam Smith famously argued that a pin factory, where each worker focused on specific step …
Continue reading “On scale, specialisation and life beyond pins”
- The maths of too many meetings
Do you ever feel that all you do is sit in coordination meetings? If two people work together, then there is one relationship to manage. By manage, I mean checking … - Ultra-processed informationIt’s super quick to absorb. Cheaply available. It bares little resemblance to its source. Its ingredients can come from anywhere. The growers are anonymous. Put together using processes you don’t …
- Non-fungible Tree
This dying tree is outside London Euston station. It desperately needs water. It sits next to the stump of the enormous London Plain that was recently felled to make way … - Just-in-its-own-time deliveryWe’ve become used to just-in-time delivery. The antithesis of stockpiled inventory. But when the living world delivers its abundance, it happens all at once. Anyone engaged in community fruit growing …
- What do they grow?I recently revisited a childhood film favourite, The Young Einstein. It begins on a cider farm in Tasmania. One evening, our hero tells his parents, “I want to be a …
- Fowl play
Good luck, little ducks. This looks like an uneven playing field. - It’s hard to win at poker by playing chessComplicated systems are like chess: we know the rules, and with some calculation, we can work out the best possible move. Complex systems are like poker: we know the rules …
Continue reading “It’s hard to win at poker by playing chess”
- Canvas and Twill — the patterns for two new short courses in regenerative designMore and more design teams are committing to regenerative principles and goals in their projects. This is very promising. But it also raises the question, how do upskill a team …
Continue reading “Canvas and Twill — the patterns for two new short courses in regenerative design”
- Field notes: the Kalideascope meets the Ambition Loop
This week I was invited to run an afternoon session for the Engineers Without Borders UK Systems Change Lab at their event in Glasgow. This event is part of their …Continue reading “Field notes: the Kalideascope meets the Ambition Loop”
- Absurd fruit saladMy recent food harvesting metaphor keeps on bearing fruit! I arrive at a workshop to see a buffet of fruit. Tasty, but I wager none of it is local and …
- No food on the trolleyA blog-writing gift from the universe. A moment after I submitted my last post, the customer service attendant on the train came past and apologised that they didn’t have any …
- Abundance!Close your laptop. Postpone your meetings! For something amazing is happening in the hedgerows in the south of Britain. You may have noticed that they are laden with fruit. Crab …
- Leave things better than you found themIn Friday’s edition of the Glastonbury Free Press I saw a cartoon by Oliver Jeffers that simply said ‘leave things better than you found them’. Like yesterday’s ‘zero negative externalities’, …
- Zero negative externalitiesBill Sharpe’s definition for a regenerative system is one that creates zero negative externalities. In other words, no harm done. The system makes things better. It is a sobering benchmark …
- Pattern Book Notes: Kalideascope + System SurveyMy intention with the Pattern Book for Regenerative Design is that users can share with each other how they have used the tools and techniques within. So, kicking off this …
Continue reading “Pattern Book Notes: Kalideascope + System Survey”
- Punching through the canopyYesterday I wrote about creating a forest garden from scratch — turning a pasture into thriving food growing space. But what if there is already forest? How do you approach …
- Creating thriving from scratchYesterday I wrote about the seven levels of a forest garden. I learnt about these at a talk given in the forest garden at Coed Hills Rural Arts Centre. The …
- The Seven Levels of a Forest GardenThe following I learnt from Steve Watts, permaculture expert, during a talk he gave about Forest Gardens at the wonderful Coedfest, which he co-leads. In a forest garden, plants and …
- ThrivingThe Pattern Book uses ‘thriving’ as a shorthand for the goal of regenerative design. The full goal is more precise: for humans and the living world to survive, thrive and …
- Systems SurveyThis motif combines the Living Systems Blueprint with a civil engineering perspective to create six questions for a site investigation that can reveal the underlying system characteristics. User guide This …
- Carrier WaveIn radio communications, a carrier wave is a signal that carries another signal. The carrier wave is the disturbance in the electromagnetic spectrum that travels out across the medium. Information …
- Living WorldThe Pattern Book uses the phrase ‘living world’ instead of nature. Nature tends to convey something outside — rural, picturesque and separate from us. Living World describes something more encompassing. …
- Short-Term Design from AnywhereWhat might a design process might look like if its goal were the opposite of enabling humans and the living world to survive, thrive and co-evolve? The Pattern Book calls …
- BeaversWhenever we ask the question, “What if every time we built something, the world got better?” — my mind jumps to beavers. Beavers often catch the imagination of people interested …
- Field notes: Book launch pattern sequence
This evening we held the London launch for the Pattern Book, hosted by our friends at Elliott Wood in the Society Building. I often describe the Pattern Book as a …Continue reading “Field notes: Book launch pattern sequence”
- Tips for regular blog writingA friend asked me for suggestions to help them get started with a regular practice of blogging. Here’s six. Make it useful — if you are writing for yourself, then …
- Field Notes — The Agora
This week I facilitated the final sessions in our Critical Thinking series for the Useful Simple Trust. The programme takes participants through four rooms in the mind of a critical … - EvergreysThis week I have been running a training course in an old venue wedged between two nesting grounds for tower cranes in central London. These leggy mechanical birds work all …
- Horizon One HighwayIn the Three Horizons model, Horizon One is the world that surrounds us — the one that grabs our attention, dominates our habits, and shapes our worldview. Because it fills …
- Le paradoxe du designI was in Paris last week to deliver a creative thinking workshop for engineers. I did the presentation in English and the Q&A in French — a happy balance that let …
- Beating a new pathYou’re out walking one morning and you reach a field of tall grass. Your destination is on the other side but you can’t see a way through. So you wade …
- Field notes: operating the Decision Engine
I’ve written lots of posts this week on decision-making, and that’s because I have run three rounds of The Decision Engine workshop — part three in our Critical Thinking programme. …Continue reading “Field notes: operating the Decision Engine”
- What if we got all the designers together who ever designed a place?Imagine gathering every designer who has ever shaped a single street for a retrospective design crit? Every building — from the latest new-build to the medieval cottage still standing. The …
Continue reading “What if we got all the designers together who ever designed a place?”
- Too soon to decide?Sometimes, when faced with a decision, it’s worth asking: is it too soon to decide? In permaculture, it’s common practice to wait a whole season before planting anything. That way, …
- All change or no changeHow do we know if an organisation is really committed to change? A big clue is to look at the culture of the organisation. Because in organisations, culture is how …
- The dance of innovation or dancing on the spotRegenerative design aims to shift our system of design and construction to one that creates thriving. But when we are working with an incumbent organisation — one built around the …
Continue reading “The dance of innovation or dancing on the spot”
- Decide to remember or decide to forgetWhen we make decisions in complex scenarios, we can never be certain how they will work out. But every decision is an opportunity to test our thinking and to see …
- Decide now or decide later?Sometimes it’s worth designing your decision-making process before you make any decisions at all. Setting your decision-making criteria. Defining the minimum requirements. Figuring out the go/no-go questions. Clarifying your preferences. …
- Feels like magicSomething that feels like magic is happening. This week I’ve been shipping pre-orders of the Pattern Book for Regenerative Design to Canada, the USA, Switzerland, Denmark, Lithuania , Spain, Portugal, …
- The song of the riverIn this sequence of posts I’m collecting questions that can help me build a regenerative design palette. In regenerative design we use the living world as a design guide. This …
- Six foot slugsI get asked this question all the time. I present an example of a scheme or an initiative in which engineers have developed a glimpse of the future — a …