DESIGNING SUSTAINABLE AND JUST TRANSITIONS

Round Table "Designing Sustainable and Just Transitions"

RUÍNA participated in the virtual round table "Designing Sustainable and Just Transitions," an activity within the Transdisciplinary Design master's program at Parsons School of Design in New York, USA. We shared a glimpse of our work and engaged in reflections alongside other guests - Ahmed Ansari, Ahmed Best, and Amir Mirza. Together, we discussed some of the fundamental themes for thinking and acting in the present, aiming to build sustainable futures and cooperation between humans and non-humans: interconnectedness, radical changes, collective vision, autonomy.

It is increasingly necessary to pay attention to the past, to the radical nature of things and their processes—the root—to understand how we can collectively rewrite historically invisible narratives, (de)construct what we understand as development and progress, and urgently learn from those whose existence (and resistance) has always aligned with the movements of the planet.

Below, we share some excerpts from the round table:

Prompt 1
“Transition design thus proposes design-led societal transformations toward more sustainable futures. By applying an understanding of the interconnectedness of social, economic, political and natural systems, it aims to address problems that exist at all levels of scale in ways that improve quality of life, including poverty, biodiversity loss, decline of community, environmental degradation, resource, and climate change.”
—Arturo Escobar, Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds

What is an image or artifact that speaks to a sustainable future you’re working towards and your philosophies about how you approach this work? How does the interconnectedness of systems (e.g., class, community, tradition, environment etc.) play a role?

A: We have deeply internalized the idea that nature encompasses everything not produced by human action, while culture encompasses everything produced by human action (objects, ideas, institutions, etc.). Essentially, this idea suggests that we are not part of nature but something external to it, and, more than that, superior to nature. This strong and radical idea underpinned scientific development in Europe after the Renaissance and supported the Industrial Revolution and its processes. This same strong and radical idea has been destroying our ecosystems since then.

The Western modern world was shaped based on the idea of a dichotomy between nature and culture, but we forgot that culture is a manifestation of nature. Let's exercise what may seem like a radical idea: consider that absolutely everything is nature. Humankind did not invent culture because culture is, above all, meaning, and nature is constantly inventing and giving meaning to itself. There are various rituals performed by non-humans: mating rituals, combat rituals, funeral rituals. Each of these rituals has very specific characteristics and procedures. Isn't this somehow a cultural manifestation that we don't recognize simply because it isn't us performing it? Interconnectedness is how nature behaves, so it is crucial to understand it as the starting point for our reflections and actions in the world.

Prompt 2
How do ideas of radical change and collective vision play a role in the sustainable future you’re working toward?

A: They play a central role in a sustainable future as they provide the necessary tools for us to become aware of the hegemonic production system in the world—based on the legacies of colonialism, extraction, and exploitation—and envision and activate alternative pathways grounded in balance with the planet and its inhabitants. The Industrial Revolution was a radical idea for its time. The idea of segmentation resulting from it radically changed the human relationship with its practices, dismantling knowledge into mechanical and isolated operations. The field of architecture, as we know it, is also a result of this process. It is important here to interpret the word "radical" in its etymological sense, which is "origin." In other words, to critically examine the origin of processes so that, by acting in the present, we can generate futures of harmonious coexistence between humans and non-humans. And in doing this exercise, collective vision is fundamental because nature is constituted by movements of reciprocity. There is simply no possibility of reciprocity if there are no others to interact with during the process.

Prompt 3
“‘We cannot build our own realities with more of the same’”
—Arturo Escobar, Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds
"When we fail to have our own proposals we end up negotiating those of others. When this happens we are no longer ourselves: we are them; we become part of the system of global organized crime"
— Organizaciones Indígenas de Colombia, 2004

The quotes above are from marginalized communities talking about how it is hard to work towards autonomy if you keep operating within colonial systems. With this in mind, how can designers today frame, model, and test future scenarios of design practices that operate beyond the destructive, short-term logics of capitalism?

A: Apoptosis is a programmed process of cellular death to maintain the system alive. The word apoptosis is a Greek word that literally means to demolish. And when each of us was being gestated, it was through the process of apoptosis or demolition of certain cells that our body took shape. Our hands were whole blocks before they gained fingers and so on with all of our bodies. Right now, as we speak, our bodies are "demolishing" old skin so new tissue cells can replace it.

In nature, demolishing is as important as building because what is new is born from what died. And life is a continuum of life-death-transformation-life-death-transformation...

When we inform something - when we give shape to something in the world - that something will eventually die, and when that happens, it should die to benefit the system and keep it alive. Everything we deliver to the world has this responsibility. The primordial responsibility to maintain the balance of the continuum of life-death-transformation-life-death-transformation. For architects and designers today, it should be a privilege to embrace and commit to this journey through our work.