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Expand—Rethinking Design for Public Challenges

Wednesday, September 14, 2022 • Civic Design Community
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Expand—Rethinking Design for Public Challenges
Speakers: Christian Bason
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Summary

As the problems facing society are getting thornier by the day, how do we bring design up to speed? Design thinking, as we have come to know it, needs to be rethought and expanded to enable more radical, systemic and long-term solutions. Christian Bason, Ph.D., CEO of the Danish Design Center, shares insights from his new book, “Expand: Stretching the Future by Design”, co-authored with Jens Martin Skibsted, arguing that innovation is in dire need of — innovation.

Key Insights

  • Design thinking must expand its timeframe from typical 3-5 years to decades or centuries to adequately address complex global challenges.

  • Proximity in design should extend beyond humans to include empathy for other species and life forms, advancing from human-centered to life-centered design.

  • Value in design is shifting from prioritizing profit to embracing social, environmental, and relational dimensions as core metrics.

  • Design can operate across vastly different scales simultaneously—from nano-level materials to interplanetary architecture.

  • Government innovation and private sectors are converging around societal missions, blurring traditional sector boundaries.

  • Participatory co-design must evolve to treat marginalized and affected groups as equal co-creators, not just informants.

  • Incorporating non-rational forms of knowledge—bodily experience, emotion, perception—is critical for authentic policy and design work.

  • Design approaches increasingly need to integrate digital and physical experiences holistically, especially in urban and civic contexts.

  • Systemic, long-term design requires institutions that foster playfulness, emotional engagement, and multi-disciplinary collaboration.

  • Global design innovation benefits from diverse cultural perspectives and indigenous knowledge, challenging Western-centric paradigms.

Notable Quotes

"Design thinking is really just a set of methodologies; there’s really no thinking in design thinking."

"We need to put the thinking back into design thinking."

"Empathy in design has been too focused on people and often on standardized personas rather than true diversity and marginalized voices."

"We have to design not just for humans but for other life forms on this planet."

"Profit making and shareholder value have been a huge part of the problem if we want a sustainable world."

"Designers can design both at nano levels and interplanetary scales like Mars architecture."

"Governments pretending to be rational is a flawed assumption; we must incorporate emotion and bodily experience in policymaking."

"The New European Bauhaus combines aesthetics, inclusivity, and climate-neutral ambitions to transform built environments by 2050."

"We need to innovate how we innovate, expanding cultural and geographic perspectives in design."

"The biggest value lies in love, caring, relationships, and beauty—not just what GDP or profit measures."

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