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Discipline

Transition design

Proposes using design to drive long-term societal transitions toward more sustainable futures, starting from a shared vision and an understanding of systems.

In Spanish
Diseño de transiciones
Origin
Irwin (2015)

What it deals with

Big problems, like climate or inequality, aren't solved with one project: they need changes over decades.

Principles

  • Long-term vision

    Imagine the desired future and work backward.

  • Understand the system

    See how problems are connected.

  • Change the mindset

    Also change the way designers think.

Applications in design

  • Use it like this

    Connect each project to the long-term transition it contributes to.

  • Avoid

    Promising to transform a system with a single project.

  • Don’t fall for it

    Transitions involve many actors with different interests: give them a voice.

Methods and tools

  • MethodBackcastingImagining the future you want and walking back to today to see which steps lead there.
  • MethodThree horizonsA framework for talking about change with three curves: what works today, what's coming and the transition.

Connections

Builds on

Related to

Authors and works

  1. 2015

    Terry Irwin

    With colleagues at Carnegie Mellon, proposed transition design as a new area of practice, study and research.

Sources

Original sources

  • Irwin, T. (2015). Transition design: A proposal for a new area of design practice, study, and research. Design and Culture, 7(2), 229–246. View source: Irwin, T. (2015)

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