Postgraduate Studentships - Search for funding opportunities.
Postgraduate Studentships - Search for funding opportunities.
Study Details: Two years (60 weeks) Extended full-time
In the context of a fast-accelerating climate and biodiversity emergency, sustainable design is not enough (Wahl). Over the past few decades, the integration of environmental considerations in the design process has focused on strategies such as more efficient use of natural resources (i.e. zero waste design) or the reduction of our environmental impact (i.e. using less toxic materials, carbon-neutral design).
Regenerative Design goes beyond sustainability and actively contributes to restore and replenish what human activities have radically deteriorated. From intensive agriculture, to expanding mega cities, energy production, design and manufacture, global economics and finance systems, the majority of human endeavours manifests a worldview in which the natural world is understood as a resource to be exploited. Designers materialise their creative vision by specifying and orchestrating transformative processes and materials which, renewables or not come from Earth. As such they carry a large responsibility when it comes to climate and biodiversity impact. 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 (Naess, Capra, Reed), regenerative cultures (Wahl), circular design (Webster, Ellen MacArthur Foundation), autonomous design (Escobar) and a fundamental understanding of planetary health to develop new creative propositions that can help restore our biodiversity, climate and empower communities through design. 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 where human and non-human species co-habit holistically.
We select applicants according to potential and current ability in the following areas:
You may be invited to an interview following our review of your application.
Interviews are only arranged on the basis that the motivational letter and the video demonstrate the applicant’s ability to skillfully generate and communicate strong design concepts and well-considered informed design outputs.
We are looking for people who are mature in thinking, experienced various levels of design practice, are ecologically-driven and personally committed to use their creative skillsets to develop an ethical, holistic and design-led regenerative project bespoke to their own region.
The course is fully online and builds on an integrated mode of learning where the knowledge acquired in one unit provides the foundation for the learning in the next unit with a total of four units over two academic years.
The first unit is ‘front-loaded’ in terms of formal teaching as it forms the foundational platform for the rest of the course. As the units progress, the proportion of self-directed and independent study will increase and formal teaching time will be reduced. This is to provide you with space to become confident in developing an individual and creative approach to regenerative design.
During the units diverse workshops are facilitated to bring students together to exchange and share knowledge and help build and sustain an enriching online community and network of practice.
Unit two is designed as a collaborative elective unit to broaden access to the wider students’ postgraduate community via interdisciplinary group work addressing theme-based global challenges.
Unit 3 and 4 are dedicated to the development and realisation of an individual regenerative design project located in your home region.
A Living Systems Approach to Design
In order to reach beyond the limitations and pitfalls of sustainable design, we need to facilitate a paradigm shift in how, what and why we design. Informed by deep ecology principles (Naess), living system thinking (Capra, Reed, Escobar) and scenarios for regenerative cultures, this unit will deconstruct prior learning and challenge students to re-evaluate their design practice with radical new lenses that embody living systems thinking and place biodiversity, climate, cultural and socio-economic equity, and indigenous wisdom at the heart of their creative process.
By integrating knowledge, tools and methodologies from the fields of ecology and cultural anthropology, this unit will enable students to build the foundations to create holistic and regenerative design outputs.
The unit will start with a 3-day induction workshop to build an online cohort dynamic, share and exchange cultural values, design contexts and backgrounds and introduce the course ethos as well as provide key induction sessions.
The core of the unit is constituted of a series of short design exercises combined with lectures, knowledge gathering and mapping seminars, group critiques, and workshops. Various knowledge exercises will provide a creative canvas for students to experiment with new knowledge informed by: planetary boundaries, permaculture, circular and regenerative systems, biodiversity, climate research and science-based targets, nature conservation and rewilding, international frameworks and governance (UN SDGs, COPs), cultural anthropology, decolonisation and indigenous knowledge, holism, and ethics of care.
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