scholarly journals Relating Systems Thinking and Design III

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jodi Forlizzi ◽  
Birger Sevaldson ◽  
Alex Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The World ◽  
Systemic Design

This special issue of Form Akademisk captures some of the systemic design thinking and research presented at the RSD3 conference, held in Oslo, Norway in 2014, and the RSD4 conference, held in Banff, Canada in 2015. These two conferences offered a range of submissions encompassing the fields of design, systemics, public policy, healthcare, and other domains. This body of work explores the emerging renaissance of systems thinking in design. The papers presented here are responses to the world we live and design in, a world that is increasingly complex and increasingly problematic for those in government, industry and academia alike.            We believe that the thinking and intervention developed at RSD3 and RSD4 is well poised to meet these challenges. In this issue, we offer two sets of papers; the first set focuses on frameworks and organizing concepts, and the second set focuses on methods and tools to aid in systemic design.

scholarly journals Redesigning Systems Thinking

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Birger Sevaldson
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Management ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
The Core ◽  
Core Competences ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Many Core ◽  
Systemic Design

The resent movement of Systemic Design seeks for new synergies between Design and Systems. While the usefulness of systems approaches in design has been fairly obvious, this paper argues that many core concepts in design are beneficial in systems thinking. This seems reasonable when it comes to the concept of Design Thinking. However, as this paper argues, the more practical core concepts of design are equally important. Designerly skills have been regarded as belonging mainly in the realm of traditional commercial design, whereas design thinking has been regarded as useful in strategic management settings. This paper argues against the idea of separating design thinking from design action. The skills and competences of design, such as the composition of the shape and form that are obvious in product design, are central to Systems Oriented Design (SOD). SOD is a version in the emerging pluralistic field of Systemic Design. The Systemic Design movement should recognise the core values of design and integrate them in systems thinking. This integration would contribute to innovation in both Systemic Design and systems thinking. Among the core competences of design discussed in the paper are composition, choreography, orchestration, the notion of the Gesamtkunstwerk and open-ended multi-scalar design strategies that allow for both structural and organic development. The paper provides examples to support its proposal for the use of concrete aesthetic principles to guide Systemic Design processes. This paper expands the working paper entitled “Holistic and dynamic concepts in design: What design brings to systems thinking”, which was presented at the RSD3 symposium (2014). 

scholarly journals Systemic Design: Two Canadian Case Studies

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Ryan ◽  
Mark Leung
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Management System ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Resource Management System ◽  
First Case ◽  
Systemic Design

This paper introduces two novel applications of systemic design to facilitate a comparison of alternative methodologies that integrate systems thinking and design. In the first case study, systemic design helped the Procurement Department at the University of Toronto re-envision how public policy is implemented and how value is created in the broader university purchasing ecosystem. This resulted in an estimated $1.5 million in savings in the first year, and a rise in user retention rates from 40% to 99%. In the second case study, systemic design helped the clean energy and natural resources group within the Government of Alberta to design a more efficient and effective resource management system and shift the way that natural resource departments work together. This resulted in the formation of a standing systemic design team and contributed to the creation of an integrated resource management system. A comparative analysis of the two projects identifies a shared set of core principles for systemic design as well as areas of differentiation that reveal potential for learning across methodologies. Together, these case studies demonstrate the complementarity of systems thinking and design thinking, and show how they may be integrated to guide positive change within complex sociotechnical systems.

scholarly journals A Framework for Systemic Design

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Service Design ◽  
Design Methods ◽  
Integrated Systems ◽  
Value Conflict ◽  
Systems Approaches ◽  
Systemic Design

As designers move upstream from traditional product and service design to engage with challenges characterised by complexity, uniqueness, value conflict, and ambiguity over objectives, they have increasingly integrated systems approaches into their practice. This synthesis of systems thinking with design thinking is forming a distinct new field of systemic design. This paper presents a framework for systemic design as a mindset, methodology, and set of methods that together enable teams to learn, innovate, and adapt to a complex and dynamic environment. We suggest that a systemic design mindset is inquiring, open, integrative, collaborative, and centred. We propose a systemic design methodology composed of six main activities: framing, formulating, generating, reflecting, inquiring, and facilitating. We view systemic design methods as a flexible and open-ended set of procedures for facilitating group collaboration that are both systemic and designerly.  

scholarly journals Relating Systems Thinking and Design II. Theoretical Evolution in Systemic Design

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Jones
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
New Work ◽  
Theoretical Evolution ◽  
Systemic Design

We have joined two issues of FORMakademisk to accommodate two sets of articles developed from remarkable early work presented at the 2013 Relating Systems Thinking to Design Symposium in Oslo. We organized these papers into a theory set, and a set for practice of systemic design, although most of these theoretical works are deeply informed by design and planning practices. The theory issue, Theoretical Evolution in Systemic Design, comprises the perspectives of scholars contributing new work crossing the former boundaries between systems theory and design thinking.

scholarly journals Relating systems thinking and design (VI)

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Davidova ◽  
Ben Sweeting ◽  
Birger Sevaldson
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Conference Series ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Systemic Design ◽  
Selection Of

This special issue of FormAkademisk comprises a selection of articles developed from presentations at the seventh Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD7) symposium, held at Politecnico di Torino, Turin, 23th-26th October 2018 (Barbero, 2018). A second collection from RSD7 is also planned to be published in FormAkademisk during 2020, continuing the close relationship between the journal and the RSD conference series (Forlizzi, Sevaldson, & Ryan, 2017; Hensel, Hensel, & Sevaldson, 2019; Jones, 2014; Sevaldson, 2018; Sevaldson & Ryan, 2014). The occasion of the RSD7 conference was especially important in the development of systemic design, being the occasion of the launch and founding meeting of the Systemic Design Association (SDA). The SDA will act as a membership organisation for the expanding community of practitioners and researchers that has developed through the RSD conferences.

scholarly journals Editorial. Relating systems thinking and design VII

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. Editorial
Author(s):  
Marie Davidová ◽  
Ben Sweeting ◽  
Birger Sevaldson
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Present Issue ◽  
Conference Series ◽  
Ongoing Relationship ◽  
The One ◽  
Systemic Design ◽  
Selection Of

This special issue of FormAkademisk comprises a selection of articles developed from presentations at the seventh Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD7) symposium, held at Politecnico di Torino, Turin, October 23-26, 2018 (Barbero, 2018). RSD7 saw the launch of the Systemic Design Association (SDA), a membership organisation for the expanding community that has developed through the RSD conferences. The present issue is the second collection of articles from RSD7 to be published in FormAkademisk following the one released earlier this year (Davidova et al., 2020). These issues are the latest contributions to the ongoing relationship between the journal and the RSD conference series (Forlizzi et al., 2017; Hensel et al., 2019; Jones, 2014; Sevaldson, 2018; Sevaldson & Ryan, 2014).

scholarly journals Relating Systems Thinking and Design I. Practical Advances in Systemic Design

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Birger Sevaldson ◽  
Alex J. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Theoretical Evolution ◽  
Systemic Design

This issue, Relating Systems Thinking and Design I – Practical Advances in Systemic Design, along with Issue 7:4, Relating Systems Thinking II – Theoretical Evolution in Systemic Design, together form a double special issue of FORMakademisk on the theory and practice of Systemic Design.

scholarly journals Relating Systems Thinking & Design 2013. Emerging Contexts for Systemic Design

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Birger Sevaldson
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Full Day ◽  
Systemic Design

AHO – Oslo School of Architecture & Design, Norway, invites to the Relating Systems Thinking and Design to a free and open symposium over two days 9th-11th October 2013, with a preceding full day with diverse workshops and a subsequent special issue in FORMakademisk.

scholarly journals Relating Systems Thinking and Design IV

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Birger Sevaldson
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Current Issue ◽  
Initial Point ◽  
The Other ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Design Features ◽  
Methodology Development ◽  
Systemic Design ◽  
Main Thread

The fourth special issue of FormAkademisk on the theme of Systemic Design features articles from RSD5 2016 held at OCADU, Toronto October 13 to 15. The themes of these five full papers are covering development of the design field at large, methodology development and practice of learning and education. The other main thread in this issue is sustainability, circular economy and urban co living strategies. The special issue follows after the publication of the RSD5 proceedings , containing videos, abstracts and working papers from the conference. In these full papers the themes form the presentations and working papers are developed further. The proceedings are found at: https://systemic-design.net/rsd-symposia/rsd5-2016/ Parallel to this special issue a Springer Book is published with Peter Jones as editor presenting an additional set of selected papers. Following the three former special issues it is fair to state that systemic design has developed beyond the initial point where it was still unclear what the notion of Systemic Design was covering and how it should be developed. The current issue demonstrates that systemic design has a wide reach and depth in its explorations. Cover image by Elisabeth Bjørndal Skjelten.

scholarly journals Editorial: Relating Systems Thinking and Design. Systemic Design and Co-creation processes for Territorial Enhancement

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-112
Author(s):  
Silvia Barbero ◽  
Amina Pereno
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Wicked Problems ◽  
Creative Solutions ◽  
The World ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Systemic Design ◽  
Different Levels

The world we live in is hectic and multifaceted, characterised by continuous changes that are more frequent, radical and dramatic than ever before. Their dimension rapidly shifts from local to global and vice-versa, due to the increasingly interconnected nature of relations, affecting society at many different levels. This results in a rising complexity that requires new creative solutions with a high degree of adaptability to be properly addressed. It is in this scenario that systemic design disciplines can effectively integrate systems thinking and its methods with design to address this multi-stakeholder complexity, by creating new resilient systems moving towards sustainability at environmental, social and economic levels. Systemic design adapts from known design competencies to frame, understand, explore, propose and design complex services and systems, acting in the context of the indeterminacy of wicked problems.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document