A new postgraduate course starts at Central Saint Martins College, London.
Why this course? Course founder Carol Collet and her team believe that sustainability is not enough. MA Regenerative Design – goes further, helping to develop a creative practice for a more-than-human world. A living systems approach, that explores living system thinking and deep ecology principles to design at the service of the regeneration of earth’s systems and communities.
Course overview
In the context of a fast-accelerating climate and biodiversity emergency, sustainable design is not enough. To date, the integration of environmental considerations in the design process has largely focused on more efficient use of natural resources or the reduction of our environmental impact. Regenerative design goes further to restore and replenish what human activities have radically deteriorated.
With a fast-expanding human population, one million species at risk of extinction and a looming global climate shift, we need to transition towards a new culture of repair. Regenerative design is a rising discipline that incorporates principles of deep ecology and living system thinking and a fundamental understanding of planetary health to develop new design propositions that can help empower communities and restore our biodiversity and climate. Instead of perpetuating an anthropocentric mindset which leads to the depletion of our underlying life-support systems, regenerative design goes beyond sustainable and circular design principles to actively promote a multi-species approach in which humans and non-humans co-habit holistically.
Design questions addressed through the curriculum include:
How does multi-species thinking manifest in design? How do we create objects, services or systems for a more-than-human world? How do we translate permaculture principles into life-enhancing design at the service of planetary health? How do we design to restore our biodiversity and climate while empowering local communities? Can design be a pivotal agent of change for an interconnected decarbonisation, decolonisation and de-extinction agenda? What can design learn from cultural anthropology to adopt new locally and culturally specific regenerative models?
