Systemic Design Labs (SDL): Incubating systemic design skills through experiential didactics and nature-based creativity

Systemic Design (SD) combines systems thinking, science and design for transformative action in complex systems. SD is a holistic approach for addressing complex sustainability challenges; it combines quantitative and qualitative methods with creativity techniques in a holistic way. SD optimizes an entire system as a whole, rather than its parts in isolation.
The purpose of Systemic Design Labs (SDL) is to better tackle the complexity of today’s sustainability challenges through experimentation and learning in a real-world context. In current education, we often learn to disassemble design challenges into their bits and parts for individual optimization. While being useful for developing topical expertise, this reductionism to parts with less emphasis on their interaction does not match with the growing complexity of today’s challenges. In contrast, systemic design approaches a task from a holistic perspective, zooming out of a system to reveal its structure and connections between its parts – to zoom in on the hub of influence that matters most.
SD optimizes an entire system as a whole, rather than its parts in isolation. It is iterative, recursive and circular, but not linear, and within each stage reveals new insights informing previous ideas, leading to loops in approaching a solution.

SDL teaching takes place in real-world laboratory (RWL) settings, which are experimental hubs and place-based situations at the interface of science, design and transformative local action. RWL provide learning and design opportunities in real life, in real time, with the inherent complexities and surprises of systemic innovation. Elements of learning in SDL are i.e. systems mapping, design thinking, footprint assessment, network analysis, test planning, prototyping, fabrication, social experiments and outdoor experiences.
SDL are interweaving science, design and practice, empowering students as change agents for sustainability, through these main components:
1) Real-world place-based context: Motivating through engaging in the urgency of place-based sustainability and regenerative action.
2) Theoretical foundations: Creating a self-reflective, in-depth understanding of sustainability, of regenerative systems, developing whole systems thinking and learning systemic design tools such as life cycle design, circularity, and cross-scalar governance design. Scanning the state of knowledge. Collecting data of different types.
3) Research by Design: Developing a rich picture systems map, both graphically and – where useful – structural-quantitative, based on 2). Defining leverage and intervention points. Practicing and understanding the human behavioral factors.
4) Applying theory to practice. Prototyping, testing, exhibiting. Collecting feedback and iterating.

The SDL series of courses were prototyping different focal themes within systemic design. The diversity in these themes and the span across systems scales provided for a rich didactic testing environment. Overall, the courses were booked well, led to successful design outputs, and fulfilled the intended goals. Students appreciated the creative space to work with materials, prototype products and services, engage in real-world settings and addressing sustainability challenges with concrete designerly action.

In 2017 Students designed and engineered their own outdoor sports product, a surf-/kite-/skateboard, or knives from upcycled steel. Company visits to e.g. Freitag (upcycled bags and eco-sourced clothing manufacturer from Zurich) widened the scope to practice.

In 2018, students prototyped a snowshoe fabrication kit as a tool for schools and the public to teach sustainability. The toolkit was optimized for circularity while displaying engineering skills like 3D printing and laminating with renewable materials, such as bio-plastics and flax-Paulownia composites. The “Student Project House” at ETH Höngg provided the needed facilities for creative design thinking, fabrication, and nature access.

In the 2019 block course, the specific design challenge was to identify and layout a holistic, partly quantified and visualized systems strategy for building a resilient community economy on the case of Ostana, Italy, that embraces local identity, revitalizes cultural and landscape biodiversity, and creates alpine-urban circularity. The produced systems maps support ongoing and future innovation processes and identity building in this community and serve as a “tool” of resilience building. The “gigamaps” are accompanied by a detailed technical report.

For the product design courses, well equipped workshops are needed, and the Student Project House was of great help here, especially when the complexity and size of products were not exceeding the capacities of space and available tools. A ski building course requires a specific workshop with more space and more specific power tools, and thus collaboration across Departments and Institutes. All these courses were run throughout the semester with usually one afternoon per week of joint student-teacher interaction.
The mountain economy planning course in the Italian Piedmont prototyped a block week, allowing to emerge into a real-world case outside the university setting, away from the daily rhythm. The social inclusion is thus different and enriched, the co-learning experience is extended, and especially the design interaction with practitioners, policy makers, local people as “project owners” in a transdisciplinary setting can only be achieved in such block course settings.

• Learning & Teaching Fair 2018
• Photo Gallery
• Report SDL Project
• Project website