Re:DesignFutures – Systems Thinking for Resilient Architecture and Urban Development

Abstract

A resilient built environment is vital in responding to the dynamic, emerging, and non-linear

challenges posed by rapid urbanisation, climate change, and socio-economic inequalities.

However, architecture and urban design practice and education in general are slow to adopt

resilience principles and have been perpetuated by narrow, artefact-oriented perspectives:

aesthetics, structural integrity, and material efficiency. On the other hand, resilience

principles require a closer look at wider contexts to endure complex global challenges. This

paper introduces Re:DesignFutures, an extension of the Strategic Speculative Futures

Framework (SSFF), as a conceptual approach to embedding resilience principles in

architecture and urban design. This paper explores how resilience principles drive the

speculative capacity of architecture and urban design, and how Re:DesignFutures can

facilitate this capacity in a structured manner. It theorises a systems-oriented resilience

framework applicable to architecture and urban design, while critically interrogating

dominant design paradigms and exposing structural and pedagogical constraints to the

adoption of resilience principles. Consequently, it attempts to articulate Re:DesignFutures

as a conceptual model for enhancing adaptive capacity and critical design thinking. This

study employs a qualitative, conceptual research approach to examine resilience theory in

the built environment by critically reviewing existing concepts and manifestations. Dominant

design paradigms are examined to identify structural and pedagogical gaps and constraints

in the adoption of resilience principles. A conceptual synthesis articulates

Re:DesignFutures as a framework for navigating the dynamic contextual considerations in

the design process. Findings highlight a lack of structured mechanisms for navigating the

breadth and depth of evolving contextual considerations in addressing global challenges

when designing for future uncertainties. The iterative and systemic approach in

Re:DesignFutures challenges the normative, reactionary tendencies of conventional

design processes by providing multi-scalar avenues for interpreting, translating, and

manipulating design challenges grounded in resilience principles. The Re:DesignFutures

framework offers an analytical and exploratory methodology, along with action guidelines,

for practitioners, educators, researchers, and students of architecture and urban design to

create a built environment integral to resilient urban futures.