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.
- 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 …
- A wobbly table on the non-flat surface of the realityThe faster trees grow, the straighter they tend to be. Compare the straight spears of fast-growing bamboo with the twisting boughs of old oak in ancient woodland. The former grows …
Continue reading “A wobbly table on the non-flat surface of the reality”
- The circumference of a circle of infinite radiusI rounded off last week’s posts with a number of questions for investigating systems in the living world. Answering these questions can help us develop a palette of systemic design …
Continue reading “The circumference of a circle of infinite radius”
- Building my regenerative professional paletteI don’t really have a professional palette for regenerative design like I do for structural design. Or at least I don’t think I do. But what I realise is that …
Continue reading “Building my regenerative professional palette”
- Compound aggregating regenerative food extrusion device — for 25 pence.The device comes in a tiny package, no more than 1cm long and less than that wide — a hundredth of its final size. No buttons. No charging ports. No …
Continue reading “Compound aggregating regenerative food extrusion device — for 25 pence.”
- In the interests of health and safety…That’s how the sign started its instruction. But health and safety is not a person. It has no interests. But people do. They have interests. They are interested in staying …
- Unlocking thinking – try out all the colours in your paletteThis week I’ve been writing about how artists, engineers (and other humans) build up a professional palette of techniques and forms from which they can develop new ideas. These are …
Continue reading “Unlocking thinking – try out all the colours in your palette”
- Structural poemsWe’re going on a bear hunt I’m not scared, etc.* Oh no — a gap. We can’t go around it. We can’t go under it. We’ll have to… Build a …
- The interface between our inner and outer worldsIf we use the professional palette as a metaphor for the collection of tools and colours we use to interpret the world, then we can see it as more than …
Continue reading “The interface between our inner and outer worlds”
- Cobalt blue and cadmium yellowOne of my highlights of my year studying engineering in France was a module I did on Impressionist painting and engineering. We explored how the artists of that period were …
- Tools for telling the futureWhat began as a conversation this week on the blog about how designers predict the future has unlocked some deeper reflections on how we approach regenerative design. Let’s rewind. As …
- Lead indicators for heat stress resilienceUp until now, my discussion about lead and lag indicators has focused on classic building performance factors. But regenerative designers are concerned with creating wider system thriving. So we need …
Continue reading “Lead indicators for heat stress resilience”
- Crowd-sourced building-performance dataHere’s an idea that I would like to throw out into the solar systems and see if anyone can do something with it. I was writing yesterday about post-occupancy amnesia …
- Post-occupancy amnesiaThis week, I’ve been thinking about lead and lag indicators. About how a designer’s job is essentially to predict the future. And about what factors we choose to use when …
- Designers tell the future (part 2)Yesterday, we looked at how the Gothic cathedral architects of northern France used precedent to guide what could be built next. But what happens when there’s no precedent? When Antoni …