The Many Faces of Design

Abstract

In light of contemporary global pressures, designers have been considering how to apply their thinking and practice more broadly within the enterprise of sustainability. Given the often wicked nature and cross-scale dynamics of related challenges, there is reason to reassess the role of design in processes of systems transformation amidst complexity. In this manuscript, the author contemplates the diversity of ‘designerly ways’, in interpretation of designers’ encounters with complex adaptive systems. These interactions are classified here using the three lenses of adaptive response, creative agency and emergent engagement.

Keywords

• sustainability
• resilience
• complex adaptive systems
• emergence
• designerly ways
• transition design
• social innovation