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.
- Seems unlikely…
A great illustration of the tenuous Brunel connections in Bristol. I quite like them. - Our new online intro to regenerative design launches in November
Here’s my pitch: Interested in regenerative design?Are you — or your colleagues — wondering how to introduce regenerative thinking on a live project?Would a short course help build clarity and …Continue reading “Our new online intro to regenerative design launches in November”
- The annoying things about hammocks — three design principles from the second law of thermodynamicsThe annoying thing about hammocks is that they obey the second law of thermodynamics. However big an initial shove you give them, they always come to a standstill. The swing’s …
- On a new term and the Three Horizons pencil case
It is hard to escape the idea that September is a new year. It’s a time for new stationery and new intentions. But when resolutions for the year ahead crop …Continue reading “On a new term and the Three Horizons pencil case”
- Letting things doneAnyone into productivity books will probably be familiar with the classic Getting Things Done by David Allen. It’s a book title that transcends the book —it becomes a value system. …
- Can I have your attention?The default answer ought to be no. Because your attention is one of your most precious resources. Attention is how we experience life. It’s what we attend to, moment by …
- Use the water on its way downhillUse the water on its way downhill Gather the feedback before everyone leaves. Capture the waste heat before it disappears up the exhaust. Better to hear it from the horse’s …
- On packing cubes and better fitFold everything up and put it straight in the bag? Or fold everything into packing cubes first, then put these in? Not an important dilemma — but useful for thinking …
- The Entropy BusWhen strangers get on a bus, they almost always spread out. Few people sit next to each other unless they really have to. Partly that’s social norms. And partly it’s …
- Boltzmann laughter distributionThis week I’ve been playing around with a way to explain the Boltzmann distribution — a mathematical function that predicts how energy is likely to spread out in a volume …
- 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 …
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- 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 …