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Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency
Regenerative design and architecture. What will it take to restore balance to our world, repair past injustices, and support future generations’ survival? Reaching beyond ‘sustainability,’ ‘regenerative’ practice is increasingly named as a new goal, but what does this emerging term really mean? And which key mindset shifts might enable truly regenerative transformation? Looking deeply into the web of life that created and supports us, and drawing inspiration from diverse cultural traditions and perspectives, spirited thinkers Michael Pawlyn and Sarah Ichioka propose a bold set of regenerative principles with potential to transform how we design, make, and manage our buildings, infrastructure, and communities. Whether you’re a built environment professional or client, an activist, or a policymaker, Flourish offers an urgent invitation to inhabit a new array of possibilities, through which we can build a thriving future, together.
144 pages, Paperback
Published February 15, 2022
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395 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 16, 2022
Flourish: Design Paradigms for our Planetary Emergency by Sarah Ichioka and Michael Pawlyn is without a doubt the most illuminating primer I’ve read on regenerative thinking and design; tracing the roots of the destructive principles that have led us to cross our ecological ceiling, and synthesising revolutionary thoughts and initiatives from across the globe that pave paths to a new future. Throughout this book I was greeted by many thinkers, theories and projects that I keep as my guide: Rebecca Solnit, Jane Jacobs, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Janette Sadik-Khan, Michael Pawlyn’s TED talk that still blow me away, and, to my great surprise, Ridwan Kamil’s Taman Film (Film Park) in Bandung – my very first introduction to placemaking and creative urban planning. I discovered Taman Film in the newspaper when I was not yet 18, yet I still remember the feeling it brought me so clearly. This project, simple as it may sound, was testament to the multitude of possibilities the city holds. It brought into focus not just how valuable every inch of the city is for the commons, but also how much of the city is often lost to manic infrastructural development. But most importantly, it showed me that what’s been lost need not remain so. That too, is Sarah and Michael’s message to the planet.
In 5 chapters, Flourish dissects key shifts in thinking and design framework that we need to restore ecological integrity: Possibilism, Co-evolution, Time, Symbiosis, and Planetary Health. All throughout the book, we are introduced to individuals, collectives and companies who have found transformative approaches to produce alternative social and infrastructural materials; creating new ways of thinking that might one day be adopted as a standard. Flourish seems to answer all of our usual doubts, too. From our tendency to minimise our individual agency in the face of ecological emergency and capitalism, to our fixation with short-term growth, and to the pervasiveness of neoliberalism, Flourish shows us another way – a better way – for humankind to take lessons from local ecosystems, reintegrate with nature and transform our worldviews. Some parts I absolutely adore: the expansion on cyclical time (and, parallel to that, “the Long Now”, “Cathedral thinking”, and holarchy), which promotes durable and regenerative practices in design and asks us to consider change as an intergenerational commitment; countering Darwinism, moving towards symbiogenesis and implementing symbiogenetic paradigms into city design (this includes participatory design and biomimetic architecture, as well as integrating local ethos to community governance); and an exploration of “Doughnut Economy” by Kate Raworth, which put society and the household at its foundation, challenging the GDP as the standard metric of growth.
This book gives me hope. Bright, luminous hope, the kind some call tragic optimism, the kind that always feels futile and naïve. But it no longer feels so. Braiding Sweetgrass showed me the original lessons, the symbiosis we may still rebuild with our land, the reparations we may still offer each other. Flourish shows the people who are already paving the way, building networks of symbiosis; using the tenets of the honourable harvest to design cities and social commons. Flourish lends me new frames of thought, and now, just as I know there are nations and billion-dollar corporations who contribute more global emissions than the whole African continent, I also know that there are good people, doing good work, building good communities in many different corners of the world. And I – we – may still become them.
Do I absolutely regret not buying this in paperback? Yes. But do I regret getting this in epub and putting aside all my tbrs to read it? Not for a minute. 🌱🌷🌈
In 5 chapters, Flourish dissects key shifts in thinking and design framework that we need to restore ecological integrity: Possibilism, Co-evolution, Time, Symbiosis, and Planetary Health. All throughout the book, we are introduced to individuals, collectives and companies who have found transformative approaches to produce alternative social and infrastructural materials; creating new ways of thinking that might one day be adopted as a standard. Flourish seems to answer all of our usual doubts, too. From our tendency to minimise our individual agency in the face of ecological emergency and capitalism, to our fixation with short-term growth, and to the pervasiveness of neoliberalism, Flourish shows us another way – a better way – for humankind to take lessons from local ecosystems, reintegrate with nature and transform our worldviews. Some parts I absolutely adore: the expansion on cyclical time (and, parallel to that, “the Long Now”, “Cathedral thinking”, and holarchy), which promotes durable and regenerative practices in design and asks us to consider change as an intergenerational commitment; countering Darwinism, moving towards symbiogenesis and implementing symbiogenetic paradigms into city design (this includes participatory design and biomimetic architecture, as well as integrating local ethos to community governance); and an exploration of “Doughnut Economy” by Kate Raworth, which put society and the household at its foundation, challenging the GDP as the standard metric of growth.
This book gives me hope. Bright, luminous hope, the kind some call tragic optimism, the kind that always feels futile and naïve. But it no longer feels so. Braiding Sweetgrass showed me the original lessons, the symbiosis we may still rebuild with our land, the reparations we may still offer each other. Flourish shows the people who are already paving the way, building networks of symbiosis; using the tenets of the honourable harvest to design cities and social commons. Flourish lends me new frames of thought, and now, just as I know there are nations and billion-dollar corporations who contribute more global emissions than the whole African continent, I also know that there are good people, doing good work, building good communities in many different corners of the world. And I – we – may still become them.
Do I absolutely regret not buying this in paperback? Yes. But do I regret getting this in epub and putting aside all my tbrs to read it? Not for a minute. 🌱🌷🌈
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 16, 2022
Flourish: Design Paradigms for our Planetary Emergency by Sarah Ichioka and Michael Pawlyn is without a doubt the most illuminating primer I’ve read on regenerative thinking and design; tracing the roots of the destructive principles that have led us to cross our ecological ceiling, and synthesising revolutionary thoughts and initiatives from across the globe that pave paths to a new future. Throughout this book I was greeted by many thinkers, theories and projects that I keep as my guide: Rebecca Solnit, Jane Jacobs, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Janette Sadik-Khan, Michael Pawlyn’s TED talk that still blow me away, and, to my great surprise, Ridwan Kamil’s Taman Film (Film Park) in Bandung – my very first introduction to placemaking and creative urban planning. I discovered Taman Film in the newspaper when I was not yet 18, yet I still remember the feeling it brought me so clearly. This project, simple as it may sound, was testament to the multitude of possibilities the city holds. It brought into focus not just how valuable every inch of the city is for the commons, but also how much of the city is often lost to manic infrastructural development. But most importantly, it showed me that what’s been lost need not remain so. That too, is Sarah and Michael’s message to the planet.
In 5 chapters, Flourish dissects key shifts in thinking and design framework that we need to restore ecological integrity: Possibilism, Co-evolution, Time, Symbiosis, and Planetary Health. All throughout the book, we are introduced to individuals, collectives and companies who have found transformative approaches to produce alternative social and infrastructural materials; creating new ways of thinking that might one day be adopted as a standard. Flourish seems to answer all of our usual doubts, too. From our tendency to minimise our individual agency in the face of ecological emergency and capitalism, to our fixation with short-term growth, and to the pervasiveness of neoliberalism, Flourish shows us another way – a better way – for humankind to take lessons from local ecosystems, reintegrate with nature and transform our worldviews. Some parts I absolutely adore: the expansion on cyclical time (and, parallel to that, “the Long Now”, “Cathedral thinking”, and holarchy), which promotes durable and regenerative practices in design and asks us to consider change as an intergenerational commitment; countering Darwinism, moving towards symbiogenesis and implementing symbiogenetic paradigms into city design (this includes participatory design and biomimetic architecture, as well as integrating local ethos to community governance); and an exploration of “Doughnut Economy” by Kate Raworth, which put society and the household at its foundation, challenging the GDP as the standard metric of growth.
This book gives me hope. Bright, luminous hope, the kind some call tragic optimism, the kind that always feels futile and naïve. But it no longer feels so. Braiding Sweetgrass showed me the original lessons, the symbiosis we may still rebuild with our land, the reparations we may still offer each other. Flourish shows the people who are already paving the way, building networks of symbiosis; using the tenets of the honourable harvest to design cities and social commons. Flourish lends me new frames of thought, and now, just as I know there are nations and billion-dollar corporations who contribute more global emissions than the whole African continent, I also know that there are good people, doing good work, building good communities in many different corners of the world. And I – we – may still become them.
Do I absolutely regret not buying this in paperback? Yes. But do I regret getting this in epub and putting aside all my tbrs to read it? Not for a minute. 🌱🌷🌈
In 5 chapters, Flourish dissects key shifts in thinking and design framework that we need to restore ecological integrity: Possibilism, Co-evolution, Time, Symbiosis, and Planetary Health. All throughout the book, we are introduced to individuals, collectives and companies who have found transformative approaches to produce alternative social and infrastructural materials; creating new ways of thinking that might one day be adopted as a standard. Flourish seems to answer all of our usual doubts, too. From our tendency to minimise our individual agency in the face of ecological emergency and capitalism, to our fixation with short-term growth, and to the pervasiveness of neoliberalism, Flourish shows us another way – a better way – for humankind to take lessons from local ecosystems, reintegrate with nature and transform our worldviews. Some parts I absolutely adore: the expansion on cyclical time (and, parallel to that, “the Long Now”, “Cathedral thinking”, and holarchy), which promotes durable and regenerative practices in design and asks us to consider change as an intergenerational commitment; countering Darwinism, moving towards symbiogenesis and implementing symbiogenetic paradigms into city design (this includes participatory design and biomimetic architecture, as well as integrating local ethos to community governance); and an exploration of “Doughnut Economy” by Kate Raworth, which put society and the household at its foundation, challenging the GDP as the standard metric of growth.
This book gives me hope. Bright, luminous hope, the kind some call tragic optimism, the kind that always feels futile and naïve. But it no longer feels so. Braiding Sweetgrass showed me the original lessons, the symbiosis we may still rebuild with our land, the reparations we may still offer each other. Flourish shows the people who are already paving the way, building networks of symbiosis; using the tenets of the honourable harvest to design cities and social commons. Flourish lends me new frames of thought, and now, just as I know there are nations and billion-dollar corporations who contribute more global emissions than the whole African continent, I also know that there are good people, doing good work, building good communities in many different corners of the world. And I – we – may still become them.
Do I absolutely regret not buying this in paperback? Yes. But do I regret getting this in epub and putting aside all my tbrs to read it? Not for a minute. 🌱🌷🌈
January 9, 2022
This is simply a must read for anyone working in the built environment professions and anyone more broadly who is a stakeholder in the making of the built environment (whether that be a planner, a client developer, an estates manager, a policy maker, or even citizens keen to see a better, flourishing built environment). I will be recommending to all my friends, colleagues, architectural students & unwitting strangers I meet.
Michael Pawlyn and Sarah Ichioka draw upon a vast range of sources - international, diverse, multi-disciplinary, often unexpected - to succinctly convey their core argument, of the need to move away from business as usual to a regenerative paradigm. Not only do they make a clear case for a regenerative future, they propose 5 key paradigm shifts that can help us to get there (without proclaiming these to be a finite list by any means, however their argument is compelling enough to me as it is made).The book is helpfully complemented with clear diagrams, tables and select case study imagery showing that the theory they outline is indeed possible. The book gives necessary background for trickier terminologies and concepts, with supplementary notes where needed and extensive referencing, making this an accessible read for those that this may be largely new territory.
An enjoyable, hopeful read. I am left feeling that more is possible than I did before I started reading. I am sure this book will be kept handy on my desk always for guidance through making challenging decisions or addressing my own preconceptions and existing degenerative system-derived baggage in the approach to design in practice. I look forward to trying to put these ideas to work and learning more from Pawlyn and Ichioka's parallel podcast series with discussions on the themes from this book.
Michael Pawlyn and Sarah Ichioka draw upon a vast range of sources - international, diverse, multi-disciplinary, often unexpected - to succinctly convey their core argument, of the need to move away from business as usual to a regenerative paradigm. Not only do they make a clear case for a regenerative future, they propose 5 key paradigm shifts that can help us to get there (without proclaiming these to be a finite list by any means, however their argument is compelling enough to me as it is made).The book is helpfully complemented with clear diagrams, tables and select case study imagery showing that the theory they outline is indeed possible. The book gives necessary background for trickier terminologies and concepts, with supplementary notes where needed and extensive referencing, making this an accessible read for those that this may be largely new territory.
An enjoyable, hopeful read. I am left feeling that more is possible than I did before I started reading. I am sure this book will be kept handy on my desk always for guidance through making challenging decisions or addressing my own preconceptions and existing degenerative system-derived baggage in the approach to design in practice. I look forward to trying to put these ideas to work and learning more from Pawlyn and Ichioka's parallel podcast series with discussions on the themes from this book.
August 17, 2025
focus on the built environment as mostly buildings and spaces with little pause to question the need for new buildings itself
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews