In April, I began work as an adjunct (visiting) professor at Tongji University (College of Design and Innovation) in Shanghai. As part of the appointment process, I submitted the research statement below. This text accompanies the new preface for the Chinese edition of my book and my recent paper for the journal She Ji, Bioregioning: […]
learning & design
Urban-Rural reconnection: research statement for Tongji University
Connected Botanic Garden
At Pontio, in North Wales, a new Masters by Research in Relational Design (#api_MRRD) helps you make a positive step-change in a live wellness project for a region. Here is a project scenario. When the first botanical gardens were established 3,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, they combined scientific enquiry with public education. Today’s botanical […]
Arborists Arising: From Tree Care to Tree Camping
At Pontio, in North Wales, a new Masters by Research in Relational Design (#api_MRRD) helps you make a positive step-change in a live wellness project for a region. One project scenario could involve performance equipment for professional arborists.
A roof, a skill, a market: The multiple dimensions of scale
“Beware the scale trap”. In a Letter To Philanthropists Parker Mitchell, a former CEO of Engineers Without Borders in Canada, advised potential donors that “scale is important, but don’t rush it. Most good ideas take time – to iron out the details, to bring down the costs, to be tested in different environments”. Organic demand-driven scale will […]
Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It
Five years ago I obtained an extraordinary 736 page book called Lean Logic: A Dictionary For The Future and How To Survive It. Written over a thirty year period by the English ecologist David Fleming, the book had been published in a limited edition after the author’s untimely death. Now, thanks to an heroic, expert […]
Biennials and system change
I was invited to give a keynote in Milan to the general assembly of the International Biennials Association. My talk was called Life’s Work: Biennials and Regeneration. Here below is a summary: The sad-looking structure above was the Dutch Pavilion not long after the Hannover World Expo ended in 2000. Having helped to write the […]
Wild Learning: 96 Ecological Learning Resources
Although we’ve allowed the metabolic interaction between man and the earth to wither, educators are working on a cure.
Bottom-up Biodiversity
Whether connecting schools to farms in France, daylighting rivers in Mexico, or rewilding grasslands in Patagonia, we’re learning how to ‘do’ biodiversity well. Fifteen minute read. Illustration © BAFU | Pierre Dubois, collectif Marie-LouiseThis text was commissioned by the Swiss Ministry of the Environment, FOEN. It is also available online in these other languages:German Biodiversität […]