The question came up at a recent roundtable: how do we inspire designers to act regeneratively. And I said, train to be a plumber.
But instead of plumber I could have inserted, carpenter, tree surgeon, blacksmith, cycle mechanic, gardener, food grower, repairer – in fact any sort of useful role that works with real materials and real systems.
I don’t pretend these are quick paths to take. But I think too often in conversations around regenerative design we spend lots of time imagining the future we want to create (which is indeed one of the roles of the regenerative designer), but not nearly enough time deeply involving ourselves with the challenges of the existing systems.
Making things in our existing system embeds us deeper into it. It grounds our thinking in physical and social reality. It helps us recognise the barriers but also the untapped potential in places and communities. We gain trust by offering services of genuine use now, and from those relationships open up new possibilities that are much more closely related to both reality and emergent opportunities.
Regenerative design isn’t only about imagining the future – it’s about rooting our thinking in the challenges and opportunities of today.
(For more on this line of thinking check out ‘The Case for Working with Your Hands’, by Matthew Crawford)
