Sustaining Sustainable Design Through Systemic Thinking

We believe that in order to ensure a sustainable future, the design of our built environment should be based on systemic thinking. A radical transformation is required in how we educate future designers. This paper proposes a systemic thinking framework that can be applied to assess the impact of innovative educational interventions. Results are presented from a study aimed at understanding the types of attitudes and skills that are necessary to reformulate unsustainable design practices. The authors identify a set of insights related to the evaluation of systemic thinking, its development, and its enactment in design practice.