fields

Notes toward the 6th finger

I’ve spent 20 years watching designers optimise products that score well environmentally while the systems producing them remain extractive. Reusable cups requiring 1,000 uses to break even. Solar panels remain entangled in rare earth mining. On balance, design seems to pursue sustainment rather than sustainability. We’ve become very good at doing less bad. But that’s not the same as actively doing good.

At RMIT University‘s Regenerative Futures Institute launching next year, we’re asking: what does it take to move toward co-developing and co-delivering interventions that actively heal damaged systems rather than just reducing harm?

Thirty years ago, Juhani Pallasmaa’s Eyes of the Skin asked us to consider architecture through how we handle things. A contemporary take: how can we evaluate whether what we touch is truly regenerative? Each finger represents a dimension any design should address: Social wellbeing (thumb), Environmental health (index), Economic purpose (middle), Cultural meaning (ring), Participation (pinky). Most products score two, maybe three fingers. Achieving all five represents genuine sustainability.

The sixth finger is where regeneration begins, when design transforms entire systems, creating positive feedback loops where increased use generates greater beneficial impact.

Two examples
RMIT Alumnus Philippa Abbott and Pelagic developed modular factories deployable to remote communities within 30 days, transforming ocean plastic into building materials that sequester it for 100+ years. The regenerative dimension isn’t the material, it’s the distributed infrastructure enabling partnerships with Indigenous Land Councils, creating local employment and supporting care for Country.

Ophthalmologist Dr Sarah Crowe encountered a Solomon Islander needing glasses but facing a four-hour journey most “would rather die than make.” She developed a vision-testing system community members learn in hours, paired with adjustable glasses assembled on-site. In Papua New Guinea, village mechanics who couldn’t repair generators regained capability through the use of the OOXii Vision Kit. Entire villages regained infrastructure & self-determination previously denied by gatekept expertise.

Neither optimises existing products. Both redesign relationships between human activity, ecological health, and community capacity.

The questions I’m sitting with:
Can we scale beyond individual projects to institutional transformation? How do we distinguish genuine regeneration from greenwashing? How do we ensure these methodologies respect Indigenous knowledge systems rather than extracting from them?

We’re testing these via collaborative projects with communities, designers, and Indigenous Land Councils.

#hashtag #RegenerativeDesign #Sustainability #SystemsThinking