On the occasion of my lecture (with the above title) at the Design Museum of Barcelona, during the Victor Papanek exhibition, I was interviewed about relational design, the potential for social and ecological transformation, and the mixed blessings of terms such as ‘future’ or ‘resilience’ Q: You define yourself as a bioregional designer. What does […]
Civic Ecology as a Design Space
What is innovative in design today? What urgent issues is the discipline tackling? For this special feature in Domus Magazine, Valentina Croci talks with Paola Antonelli, Aric Chen and John Thackara. Paola muses on the disturbed relation between us and nature, the subject of her (then) forthcoming show at the Triennale di Milano. From his […]
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When Value Arises from Relationships, not from Things
The following texts by John Thackara were selected and republished by P2P MagazineHow To Thrive In the Next Economy: Preface to the Chinese edition (July 2019) When Value Arises From Relationships, Not From Things (interview with Valentina Croci in Domus Magazine, April 2018)Manifesto For Utopias Are Over: Cities Are Living Systems (extract from DAMN magazine, […]
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In an Ecological Civilization, Place is our Professor
I gave a plenary talk (by video) to the China Eco-Civilization Research and Promotion Association (CECRPA) Conference, 17 November 2019. My focus was an ecological design training platform for designers in China. 中国生态文明研究与促进会（CECRPA）会议11月17日：约翰·萨卡拉（John Thackara）全体会议 生态创新培训 In the last 100 years, there have been three eras of design. During the Industrial Era, design was powerful driver […]
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December Newsletter
CONTENTSDates for my 2020 Meetups and Retreats | Report on our Urban-Rural exhibition in China | Next steps for the Social Food Atlas | Recent publications | Thirty-two case-study collections |Five recommended books 2020 MEETUPS/RETREATSFor a second year, I’m hosting week-long Meetups|Project Retreats| Residencies at our home in France. If you are a designer, project […]
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People Doing Stuff: Case Study Collections
Words like climate, system, or sustainability are passive. What does work – in reducing the sense of powerlessness and isolation – are examples of real people, taking practical steps, right now. With that lesson in mind, here is a list of case study collections that I’ve found useful, and often inspiring, in my own work. […]
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Urban-Rural: 10 Takeaways
The Zhangyan Harvests Future Country Living Festival in Shanghai included an exhibition called Urban-Rural. that I curated. Here are 82 slides of the event.https://www.slideshare.net/johnthackara/urbanrural-exhibition-shanghai-november-2019-john-thackara-personal-slides Below are my ten takeaways. Scroll down for Chinese. 1. We’re in a transition from the oil age to the soil age. The projects in Urban-Rural are signals of what the […]
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The City as a Living System: A Design Research Agenda
This is the text of my plenary talk at the Design x Collaborative Cities conference, 28 and 29 October 2018, Shanghai. It was hosted by the College of Design and Innovation (D&I) at Tongji University, where I am a visiting professor, and DESIS Network. (Here is the 25 minute video). The industrial age distracted us […]