This website, and my work, are about designing for all of life – and caring for place – within social and ecological systems.
My activities are informed by these place-based design projects that I’ve led over many years, with diverse partners, and in many territories.
My books (twelve) and blog (900+ posts) are mostly about people doing this work, and why they do it.
From time to time, I curate festivals and biennials which bring these people and communities together.
I explore the why? further as a visiting professor at three universities – as shown below. I also interview some of these inspiring people on our YouTube channel.
I draw on these experiences in conversation-starting talks – live, or online – for business, and professionals.
A growing number of mid-career professionals, who are ready to change direction, seem to be drawn to the practices on this website. If you come to a Meetup, Retreat or an OffSite we ask you good questions as a catalyst for reflection. You also learn from each other about new ways to do good work.
This website, and my work, are about designing for all of life – and caring for place – within social and ecological systems.
My activities are informed by these place-based design projects that I’ve led over many years, with diverse partners, and in many territories.
My books (twelve) and blog (900+ posts) are mostly about people doing this work, and why they do it.
From time to time, I curate festivals and biennials which bring these people and communities together.
I explore the why? further as a visiting professor at three universities – as shown below. I also interview some of these inspiring people on our YouTube channel.
I draw on these experiences in conversation-starting talks – live, or online – for business, and professionals.
A growing number of mid-career professionals, who are ready to change direction, seem to be drawn to the practices on this website. If you come to a Meetup, Retreat or an OffSite we ask you good questions as a catalyst for reflection. You also learn from each other about new ways to do good work.
Current Activities
August 2023
Back To The Land Summer Course
(Sweden 2015-)
How can we reconnect urban and rural in practice? In Sweden, with a focus on food and relationships, participants on this annual six-week summer course learn about storying of place as the basis of intervening in a food system. They then deliver product-service prototypes of heritage foods, non-timber forest experiences, and positive impact tourism. This work is carried out with a small municipality in the region, diverse local actors, and the design school Konstfack.
Urban-Rural: Regenerative Design
(Tongji University, Shanghai 2019-)
In Shanghai, I’m developing the agenda for a Thematic Cluster on Regenerative Design. I identify opportunities for design where climate finance, artificial intelligence, ecological restoration, green infrastructure, and agro-ecology, intersect. At the invitation of Prof. Dr. Yongqi Lou (Vice President at Tongji University) the work builds on my Urban-Rural paper in She Ji (or: pdf of full text) and the Urban-Rural expo we did at the end of 2019. You can read my D&I Research Agenda here.
Open School for Village Hosts
(OSVH, EU-wide, 2022-2024)
Village Hosts seek out and connect assets that may already exist in a region, but are unknown, or isolated: people, places, buildings, and, skills.
In the Open School for Village Hosts project, we are piloting a training programme with 40 Village Hosts from different parts Europe. We are also building a Collaboration Platform to share this emerging practice widely via Peer-to_Peer learning. (I’m a special advisor to Andrea Paoletti at Casa Netural, in Matera, Italy, who leads this EU-wide programme).
Design for Planet Fellowship (UK, 2022)
I’m working with Nat Hunter, a fellow Fellow, on a text about Nature Connection. It will be published at the Design for Planet Festival in Newcastle, England, in November. The fellowship brings together eight experts from different disciplines (including me) who work at the cutting edge of sustainability and regenerative design. We prototype new ways of working, and build knowledge, on climate & biodiversity action.
Lifeworlds: Multispecies Cities and Relational Design, Politecnico di Milano (Italy, 2023)
I teach a relational design masters workshop at Politecnico di Milano each Spring- together with Roberta Tassi and Caterina Castiglione. Read here about our March 2022 edition (This course builds on the MSc in Relational Design I developed for Andrew Goodman at Bangor University in 2019. (MSc has not yet restarted after Covid).
School of Visual Arts (New York)
In September-October, I advise masters students on their thesis projects for this two-year, immersive program, led by Allan Chochinov, that prepares exceptional practitioners for leadership in the shifting terrain of design.
AI and Cognitive Justice
Indigenous peoples have a closer relationship with their land, understand the health of their soil, and care for biodiversity, more than most of those who practice ‘production agriculture’. But their intimate, fine-grained knowledge of place can potentially be enhanced – and shared – using new tools.
Current Activities
August 2023
Back To The Land Summer Course
(Sweden 2015-)
How can we reconnect urban and rural in practice? In Sweden, with a focus on food and relationships, participants on this annual six-week summer course s learn about storying of place as the basis of intervening in a food system. They then deliver product-service prototypes of heritage foods, non-timber forest experiences, and positive impact tourism. This work is carried out with a small municipality in the region, diverse local actors, and the design school Konstfack.
Urban-Rural: Regenerative Design
(Tongji University, Shanghai 2019-)
In Shanghai, I’m developing the agenda for a Thematic Cluster on Regenerative Design. I identify opportunities for design where climate finance, artificial intelligence, ecological restoration, green infrastructure, and agro-ecology, intersect. At the invitation of Prof. Dr. Yongqi Lou (Vice President at Tongji University) the work builds on my Urban-Rural paper in She Ji (or: pdf of full text) and the Urban-Rural expo we did at the end of 2019. You can read my D&I Research Agenda here.
Open School for Village Hosts
(OSVH, EU-wide, 2022-2024)
Village Hosts seek out and connect assets that may already exist in a region, but are unknown, or isolated: people, places, buildings, and, skills.
In the Open School for Village Hosts project, we are piloting a training programme with 40 Village Hosts from different parts Europe. We are also building a Collaboration Platform to share this emerging practice widely via Peer-to_Peer learning. (I’m a special advisor to Andrea Paoletti at Casa Netural, in Matera, Italy, who leads this EU-wide programme).
Design for Planet Fellowship (UK, 2022)
I’m working with Nat Hunter, a fellow Fellow, on a text about Nature Connection. It will be published at the Design for Planet Festival in Newcastle, England, in November. The fellowship brings together eight experts from different disciplines (including me) who work at the cutting edge of sustainability and regenerative design. We prototype new ways of working, and build knowledge, on climate & biodiversity action.
Lifeworlds: Multispecies Cities and Relational Design, Politecnico di Milano (Italy, 2023)
I teach a relational design masters workshop at Politecnico di Milano each Spring- together with Roberta Tassi and Caterina Castiglione. Read here about our March 2022 edition (This course builds on the MSc in Relational Design I developed for Andrew Goodman at Bangor University in 2019. (MSc has not yet restarted after Covid).
School of Visual Arts (New York)
In September-October, I advise masters students on their thesis projects for this two-year, immersive program, led by Allan Chochinov, that prepares exceptional practitioners for leadership in the shifting terrain of design.
AI and Cognitive Justice
Indigenous peoples have a closer relationship with their land, understand the health of their soil, and care for biodiversity, more than most of those who practice ‘production agriculture’. But their intimate, fine-grained knowledge of place can potentially be enhanced – and shared – using new tools.
Past Activities
The archive of my past activities is scattered around this website (which started in 1994). Good starting points are:
– Talks
– Publications
– Urban-Rural Projects
And they are listed on my cv.