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Systemic Design Labs: RE:GENERATE Alpine-Urban Circularity
Last Updated: 2026-02-05 15:42:15
Abstract
Systemic design (SD) optimizes an entire system as a whole, rather than its parts in isolation. SD is iterative, recursive and circular, requires creative, curious, informed and critical systems thinking and doing, yielding radical resource efficiency. Systems mapping, design thinking, footprint assessment, test planning, prototyping, fabrication, social experiments are part of SD.
Objective
The growing necessity to consider eco-social aspects makes design, planning and engineering practices more complex. Systemic design combines systems thinking skills with design thinking to address such complexity. The objectives of the course are to introduce students to the most important topics in systemic design methods, models, theory and methodology that form the basis for engineering, design and planning practices, and research for sustainability. A main goal is to develop whole systems thinking, life cycle and cradle to cradle thinking, to build knowledge on environmental impacts of materials and processes, and to stimulate overall reflective eco-social thinking in design, planning and engineering disciplines.The teaching purpose of Systemic Design Labs is to better tackle the complexity of today’s sustainability challenges. Often, in current education we 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.
Content
Design Challenge: How to revive mountain livelihoods, focusing on local identity, resilient landscapes and a regenerative economy? The specific design challenge is 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. A clear connection is between the local identity (culture, traditions, visions) which is formed by Occitan culture (food, music, dance, language), traditional stone building architecture which is under pressure to carefully evolve with new needs for carbon-neutral and net-positive buildings, and the Monte Viso landscape. How does a re-growing economy that should be regenerative and circular by design, correlate with innovation in architecture, with population growth and associated challenges in mobility, waste systems and supplies, with growing tourism, new agro-forestry practices like industrial hemp and Paulownia, while impacts of climate change are clearly visible? How does the community design a vision that is based on cooperation on different governance scales, balancing local identity and urgently needed international innovation? Deliverables & output: This SDL course RE:GENERATE builds upon related work from former courses hosted and lead by the MonViso Institute (i.e. on social innovation, mobility, architecture and local identity, tourism, circular economy, land use change) to develop and design foundations for a visualized and partly quantified systems map, that will support ongoing and future innovation processes in this community. Foci are the interplay of architecture, circular economy, land use change, and identity. The map will be accompanied by a detailed report.
Resources
Lecture Notes
see learning materials
Literature
e.g. Striebig, B. and Ogundipe, A. 2016. Engineering Applications in Sustainable Design and Development. ISBN-10: 8131529053. Jones, P. 2014. Design research methods for systemic design: Perspectives from design education and practice. Proceedings of ISSS 2014, July 28 – Aug1, 2014, Washington, D.C. Blizzard, J. L. and L. E. Klotz. 2012. A framework for sustainable whole systems design. Design Studies 33(5). Brown, T. and J. Wyatt. 2010. Design thinking for social innovation. Stanford Social Innovation Review. Stanford University. Fischer, M. 2015. Design it! Solving Sustainability problems by applying design thinking. GAIA 24/3:174-178. Luthe, T., Kaegi, T. and J. Reger. 2013. A Systems Approach to Sustainable Technical Product Design. Combining life cycle assessment and virtual development in the case of skis. Journal of Industrial Ecology 17(4), 605-617. DOI: 10.1111/jiec.12000
Learning Materials (Links)
- Main link
- Systemic Design Labs
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- MSC
Examination
- Type
- graded semester performance
Registration & Places
- Max Places
- 20
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| seminar |
Systemic Design Labs: RE:GENERATE Alpine-Urban Circularity
Intro: one day upon agrrement (before start of block course).
Block course: 05. - 12.09.2020.
|
No time listed | 30 h semesterly |
Offered In
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Electives (The entire course programs of ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich are open to the students to individual selection.)
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Electives (The entire course programs of ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich are open to the students to individual selection.)
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Electives (The entire course programs of ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich are open to the students to individual selection. The students have themselves to check whether they meet the admission requirements for a course.)
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