September 2025
The core of my work is to seek out inspiring people who are designing for life, for real, in diverse contexts. I write about their work in books (12) and online (900+ blog posts). In keynote talks, I explain what you can from them, too. I help three universities develop innovation and design projects – especially Tongji University in Shanghai; and Glasgow School of Art, where I’m a visiting professor; and BITS Design in Mumbai. I curate festivals and biennials which bring project leaders together. Between times, I host MeetUp-Retreats at our house in France, together with my partner and wife Kristi van Riet.
Any new content from me will find its way to my website thackara.com, X (@johnthackara), and LinkedIn.
Human Nature Engagement – Design for the Web of Life, Shanghai
The above theme, with a special focus on Urban-Rural Reconnection, informs my work as a professor at Tongji University. I help senior leadership (Vice President Prof. Lou Yongqi) and faculty develop research agendas, and produce events. I curated the Urban-Rural expo in Shanghai in 2019, and serve on the editorial board of She Ji; I co-wrote the DesignS Manifesto; I advise PhD students in the SustainX Lab; and work on AgTech for Agroecology with the Ecology & Cultures Lab of Prof Valsecchi.
Care, Value, Place, Mumbai
In this two-day event that I curate at BITS Design, we invite grassroots project leaders to discuss how design might serve their real-world, place-based projects. Our focus areas are: Natural Farming; Watershed Recovery; Care; and Heat. I’m on the Advisory Group of BITS Design, the new design school in Mumbai founded by Kumar Mangalam Birla, and led by its Dean, Nandita Abraham.
bitsdesign.edu.in/news/care-value-place-conference-mumbai
Landscapes of Care, Scotland Highlands
How might design better serve pecological urbanism with laces? At the invitation of Professor Irene McAra-McWilliam, OBE, I’m visiting professor at Rural Lab on the Altyre Estate, in Scotland, site of the Glasgow School of Art’s ’s Highlands & Islands Campus. This work builds on my four years as a guest critic at their winter school convened by Professor Gordon Hush and led by Professor Albert Fuster.
gsainnovationschool.com/winter-school
Bioregional Learning Alliance
Bioregioning reminds us that we live among watersheds, foodsheds, and fibersheds – not just in cities, towns, or ‘the countryside’. I’m helping Isabel Carlisle, founder of the Bioregional Learning Centre, develop starter courses for early and mid- career professionals.
https://bioregion.org.uk/meet-the-team/
Village Hosts Movement
Many small villages in Europe have been suffering from depopulation – but the tide is turning. In 2020, together with Andrea Paoletti and the Casa Netural Foundation, I helped found the Open School for Village Hosts, a community of practice for mid-career professionals. The movement helps local leaders enhance and expand activities that create positive ecological and social impact.
https://www.villagehosts.eu/future-villages-lies-hands-rural-activators/
Offsites in France
Small groups (4-10 people) come to explore what designing for life might mean, for them, In practice. Some are already working on a live project. Others groups are exploring alternative new pathways. Our our offsites are hosted by the not-for-profit Doors of Perception Association.
https://thackara.com/meetinfrance/offsite/
Dancing With Life
The words ‘Dancing With Life’ were coined by the scientist Donella Meadows to describe healthy ways to connect with, and live among, living systems. Her words are the working title of my next book which will be co-published by Thames & Hudson and Lilliput Press.
This website, and my work, are about designing for all of life – and caring for place – within social and ecological systems.
My books (twelve) and blog (900+ posts) are mostly about people doing this work, and why they do it. And, from time to time, I curate festivals and biennials which bring these people and communities together.
I also draw on these experiences in conversation-starting talks – live, or online – for business, and professionals. I interview some of these inspiring people on our YouTube channel.
My activities are informed by the place-based design projects that I’ve led over many years, with diverse partners, and in many territories.
I explore the why? further as a visiting professor at Tongji University in China, and at Politecnico di Milano in Italy. I am also a Senior Fellow at the Royal College of Art in London.
A growing number of mid-career professionals share my curiosity about what designing for life can mean in practice. Some of them come a Meetup, Retreat or OffSite at my place in the South of France. Here, they are asked good questions as a catalyst for reflection, and learn from each other about new ways to do good work.
Recently Completed Activities
Recently completed (2021-2023)
Back To The Land Summer Course (Sweden 2015-2023)
How can we reconnect urban and rural in practice? In Sweden, with a focus on food and relationships, participants on this annual six-week summer course learned about storying of place as the basis of intervening in a food system. We crafted and tested small actions to do with soil fertility, ecological and economic value, tactile & haptic food experience, biodiversity & food webs. To conclude the summer school series, a list of new livelihoods was published with the title, The Good Work In Urban-Rural.
Open School for Village Hosts (OSVH, EU-wide, 2022-2023)
Village Hosts seek out and connect assets that may already exist in a region, but are unknown, or isolated: people, places, buildings, and, skills. In the Open School for Village Hosts project, we piloted a training programme with 40 Village Hosts from different parts Europe. We also built a Collaboration Platform to share this emerging practice widely via Peer-to_Peer learning. (I’m a special advisor to Andrea Paoletti at Casa Netural, in Matera, Italy, who leads this EU-wide programme).
Design for Planet Fellowship (UK, 2022)
I worked with Nat Hunter, a fellow Fellow, on a text about Nature Connection. It was published at the Design for Planet Festival in Newcastle, England. The fellowship brings together eight experts from different disciplines (including, in 2022, me) who work at the cutting edge of sustainability and regenerative design. We prototype new ways of working, and build knowledge, on climate & biodiversity action. Nat and I discuss our findings in this podcast I also posted this video: Hour of Ecology: Gateways to Nature Reconnection
Current Activities
February 2024
Care, Value, Place: New Urban-Rural Economies (Tongji University, Shanghai)
Since 2019 I have been Visiting Professor at Tongji University. I help senior leadership and faculty develop opportunities for international research cooperation. I also supervise PhD students, and give three keynote lectures per year. I report at Tongji to Prof. Dr. Yongqi Lou (Vice President at Tongji University). The work builds on my Urban-Rural paper in She Ji (or: pdf of full text) and the Urban-Rural expo we did at the end of 2019. You can read my D&I Research Agenda here.
Politecnico di Milano: Design for multi-species cities. (Italy, 2022-) I teach a relational design masters workshop at Politecnico di Milano each Spring- together with Caterina Castiglione. Read here about our civicecology/design-for-multi-species-cities-2/ (This course builds on the MSc in Relational Design I developed for Andrew Goodman at Bangor University in 2019. (MSc has not yet restarted after Covid).
Bioregioning 1:01: Landscapes of Learning: (UK/International)
Bioregioning reminds us that we live among watersheds, foodsheds, fibersheds, and food systems – not just in cities, towns, or ‘the countryside’. I’m helping the Bioregional Learning Centre develop a starter course for early career professionals. bioregion.org.uk/meet-the-team/
Highlands & Islands Winter School, Scotland
Since 2022 I have been a guest expert at the annual Glasgow School of Art Winter School, an international workshop in the Scottish Highlands. Participants engage in collaborative work that spans different cultures, languages and disciplines; they gain an insight into what a career in design as a global activity looks like. The theme of the 2023 Winter School was Indigenous Knowledges and Design. My theme for 2024 is the question: “What alternatives are there to the financialisation of nature – and how can design help them happen?”
gsainnovationschool.co.uk/winter-school
MeetUps, Residencies, 7-Day-Sabbaticals (France)
People come to explore what designing for life might mean for them. Some are working on a live project, thesis, course, or book. Others want to transform their professional situation. thackara.com/meetinfrance/
Dancing With Life
The words ‘Dancing With Life’ were coined by the scientist Donella Meadows to describe healthy ways to connect with, and live among, living systems. Her words are the working title of my next book
Recently Completed Activities
2021-2023
Back To The Land Summer Course (Sweden 2015-2023)
How can we reconnect urban and rural in practice? In Sweden, with a focus on food and relationships, participants on this annual six-week summer course learned about storying of place as the basis of intervening in a food system. We crafted and tested small actions to do with soil fertility, ecological and economic value, tactile & haptic food experience, biodiversity & food webs. To conclude the summer school series, a list of new livelihoods was published with the title, The Good Work In Urban-Rural.
Open School for Village Hosts (OSVH, EU-wide, 2022-2023)
Village Hosts seek out and connect assets that may already exist in a region, but are unknown, or isolated: people, places, buildings, and, skills. In the Open School for Village Hosts project, we piloted a training programme with 40 Village Hosts from different parts Europe. We also built a Collaboration Platform to share this emerging practice widely via Peer-to_Peer learning. (I’m a special advisor to Andrea Paoletti at Casa Netural, in Matera, Italy, who leads this EU-wide programme).
Design for Planet Fellowship (UK, 2022)
I worked with Nat Hunter, a fellow Fellow, on a text about Nature Connection. It was published at the Design for Planet Festival in Newcastle, England. The fellowship brings together eight experts from different disciplines (including, in 2022, me) who work at the cutting edge of sustainability and regenerative design. We prototype new ways of working, and build knowledge, on climate & biodiversity action. Nat and I discuss our findings in this podcast I also posted this video: Hour of Ecology: Gateways to Nature Reconnection
Past Activities
The archive of my past activities is scattered around this website (which started in 1994). Good starting points are:
– Talks
– Publications
– Urban-Rural Projects
And they are listed on my cv.