2025
Glasgow School of Art, Scotland
Duration: 4 months
Master Thesis project
principles for a Life Affirming practice
An emerging practice I developed as part of my master's thesis, Designing for Life Affirmation moves beyond Human-Centred Design by dissolving the notion of a human “centre.”
Instead, it affirms life at its core, challenging traditional sustainability concepts and embracing interconnected, reciprocal relationships within ecosystems.
Designing for Life Affirmation
Designing for Life Affirmation is...
01 Ecosystem Oriented
02 Socially Just
03 Alive
04 Reciprocal
05 Collective
06 Long-term Thinking
07 Place-Based
08 Regenerative
A Note
These principles are meant to be alive, and with that, change and adapt as the context they live in changes. The principles are meant to be an open source of questioning, reflection, exploration, learning, and practice, and will continue to evolve as more voices and organisms offer their wisdom. This means that, like Designing for Life Affirmation, the principles will manifest differently depending on the context in which they live, as they are meant to be site-specific.
My humble ask is that you strive to embody the reciprocity threaded throughout the principles, and so share your learning, questioning, exploring, and practice with others and with me.
Acknowledgements
These principles are informed by existing and emerging practices, research, and projects. Ideas and practices present in the design principles have been practiced by indigenous peoples around the world for a very long time. Alongside this, sparkles from regenerative design practices, Karana et al.’s article “Living Artefacts for Regenerative Ecologies,” Flourish Podcast by Ichioka and Pawlyn, “Designing for Interdependence” by Ávila, and Ecoliteracy Principles based on Goleman et al.’s five practices in the book “Ecoliterate,” amended by Ávila et al. and taught at Konstfack, are woven throughout the principles.
The principles are, in other words, an attempt at synthesising existing knowledge, ideas, and practices into something akin to a guide.
Contributions from designers and practitioners are woven throughout the fabric of the principles, including but not limited to Martín Ávila, Rachael Sleight, Gabby Morris, Miles Gibbons, Gordon Hush, John Lundy, Lynn-Sayers McHattie, and Gemma Drake.
Ecosystem Oriented
Designing for Life Affirmation moves away from an anthropocentric worldview towards an ecosystem-oriented one. Humans are not separate from nature, but part of nature. Nature is the human context, and this understanding allows us to embody the knowledge that what we do to nature, we do to ourselves.
This means designing not only for nature, but with nature, designing in nature, and designing as nature. Nature is an active participant in the design process, decision-making, and outcome.
Designing for Life Affirmation strives to mimic the processes, structures, networks, relationships, and temporalities of ecosystems. All systems change over time, and organisms adapt to that change according to their own capacities. These abilities are something to be celebrated and considered in design, and to be co-designed with.
Challenging the idea of human superiority also means considering all human and non-human entities important and valuable. This is not to ignore the inherent hierarchies and power imbalances between different entities, but rather about inviting in more voices, agencies, dependencies, and perspectives.
Designing for Life Affirmation exists within the reality of biophysical constraints, and as a result aims at supporting the conditions necessary for life to flourish within our planetary boundaries.
01
Questions we might ask ourselves
- What might designing as nature entail?
- Who else lives here? What do they depend on?
- What might the creation of life affirming design cultures entail?
- How might we create material cultures not at the expense of, but in support of living beings (humans and non-humans)?
- What role is appropriate for humans to occupy? To what extent ought humans intervene in ecosystems? – Are humans active participants in the shaping of ecosystems and environments, do humans occupy a role of stewardship, or something else?
- How might we foster multi-species ecosystems that facilitate collaborative and creative dynamics through design?[i]
[i] Karana, Elvin, Holly McQuillan, Valentina Rognoli, and Elisa Giaccardi, ‘Living Artefacts for Regenerative
Ecologies’, Research Directions: Biotechnology Design, 1 (2023), 2-16, p. 9.
02
Socially Just
The cognitive separation of human and nature has, in great part, also applied to the colonialist exploitation of peoples and places. For this reason, ecoliteracy includes social justice.
Designing for Life Affirmation challenges the Western dominant power hierarchies by striving to be anti-racist, anti-colonialist, and anti-imperialist. Diversity of thought, mind, action, and existence is a strength and a reality of the pluralistic multispecies world we co-exist in.
It is integral to be aware of our own privileges and notice who is not in the room when we make decisions, so as to ensure inclusivity, equity, and accessibility. Designing for Life Affirmation strives to be accessible by being informed and formed by the specific capacities and needs of the humans and non-humans to whom it relates.
Designing for Life Affirmation strives to protect the agency of all life, human and non-human, and aims to co-design with non-human entities.
Questions we might ask ourselves
- Who is not in the room where decision-making is happening?
- Whose (human) voice have I not heard?
- How do I include them?
- How do I design with non-human entities?
- What is at stake for whom?
- What are the political implications and power hierarchies present, and what influence do they have?
- What tension points are brought to light by a norm-critical engagement? How might we address them?
- How can Life Affirming Artefacts challenge prevalent societal norms and stigmatisations surrounding living organisms?[i]
- How might Life Affirming Artefacts facilitate and foster appreciation of the emergence, unpredictability, and temporality of living systems and organisms?[ii]
- What might a Life Affirming Artefact that fosters reciprocal relationships of care, interdependence, and intra-action look like?
- How do we design Life Affirming Artefacts that cultivate novel social and cultural practices on individual and collective levels to help facilitate the transition towards a future informed by Life Affirming practices?
[i] Karana and others, p. 11.
[ii] Karana and others, p. 9.
Alive
Designing for Life Affirmation is alive and, therefore, adaptive, flexible, and temporal. It is meant to change, and so we (humans) have let go of anthropocentric needs for control, predictability, and certainty.
Embracing the emergence, unpredictability, and temporality of the living organisms involved, Designing for Life Affirmation facilitates these qualities as strengths by considering aspects of use, aesthetics, and end-of-life.
Designing for Life Affirmation thinks in life cycles by exploring whole life cycles. Designing for Life Affirmation moves away from a focus solely on the useful cycles of things, allowing for the tracing of interdependencies among biotic and abiotic systems.
Living System
Artefact
Language
Culture
Design
Aesthetic
Data
Building
City
Future
Questions we might ask ourselves
- How might be design with end-of-life as an important part of the life cycle?
- How might the distinctive biological affordances of living organisms inhabiting a specific site inform the design, (multiple) use, and end-of-life of Life Affirming Artefacts?[i]
- How might the temporalities of biotic and abiotic entities within Life Affirming Artefacts enable regenerative material and energy flows?[ii]
- How might Life Affirming Artefacts facilitate and foster appreciation of the emergence, unpredictability, and temporality of living systems and organisms?[iii]
[i] Karana and others, p. 9.
[ii] Karana and others, p. 9.
[iii] Karana and others, p. 9.
03
04
Reciprocal
Reciprocal Relationships of Care are one of the cornerstones of Designing for Life Affirmation, as it embodies how our fundamental mutual dependence leads to mutual flourishing, through understanding how nature sustains life.
Reciprocity is collective, as it embodies a mutual exchange between multiple entities.
Reciprocity is mutual exchange of privileges or resources.
shared, felt, given, shown or done in return, of equal or similar value.
mutual dependence, action or influence.
mutual symbiosis
intra-action
Care is engaging with, interacting with, building relationships
with, and acting to the benefit of someone or something, human or non-human.
the provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something, human or non-human.
Questions we might ask ourselves
- What might the creation of life affirming design cultures entail?
- How might we create material cultures not at the expense of, but in support of living beings (humans and non-humans)?
- What role is appropriate for humans to occupy? To what extent ought humans intervene in ecosystems? – Are humans active participants in the shaping of ecosystems and environments, do humans occupy a role of stewardship, or something else?
- How might we foster multi-species ecosystems that facilitate collaborative and creative dynamics through design?[i]
- What might care practices tailored to specific organisms look like?[1]
[1] Organism Specific Care Practices – Karana and others.
[i] Karana and others, p. 9.
[ii] Karana and others, p. 10.
[iii] Karana and others, p. 10.
[iv] Karana and others, p. 10.
[v] Karana and others, p. 10.
Collective
Sustainability and regenerative practices are community practices. Cultures of care and collaboration between all humans and non-humans acknowledge the interconnected networks, interdependence, and intra-action of all life and understand that thriving is a collective effort.
Questions we might ask ourselves
- Whose (human) voice have I not heard?
- Who else is here? What do they depend on?
- How do I include them?
- How do I design with non-human entities?
- What scales of collective am I working on? Family, neighbourhood, country, globally?
- How might everyday interaction with Life Affirming Artefacts foster reciprocal relationships of care, interdependence, and intra-action?[i]
[i] Karana and others, p. 10.
05
06
Long term Thinking
7 Generations Thinking is an indigenous approach to decision-making that asks us to consider the impact of our decisions 7 generations into the future, in words, work, and action. By considering potential long-term impacts, we try to anticipate unintended consequences and embody a deeper intentionality in our decision-making.
Keeping the long-term in mind enables us to better understand the journey we must take to reach our destination. When considering the present, we must not forget what impact that present might have on our future. Conversely, when considering the future, we must not forget what impact that future might have on our present.
Questions we might ask ourselves
- How might x exist in the world now?
- How might x exist in the world in 7 generations?
- If x is how we would like the world to look in 7 generations, what are the actions we must take now to cultivate that possibility?
- What can the temporalities of living aesthetics teach us about longevity and transience?
Place - Based
Place-based approaches are often described as geographical and methodological.
A Life Affirming, geographical, place-based approach works from and with local, site-specific, and situated knowledge from humans and non-humans alike. Designing for Life Affirmation strives to acknowledge and incorporate the visible, less visible, and invisible inhabitants of the specific location, whether it’s relating to the natural environment, local demographics, or infrastructure.
Life Affirming place-based designs aim to be connected to their place of birth, as they are informed and formed by the processes, structures, networks, relationships, capacities, needs, and temporalities of the human and non-human inhabitants of the site.
A methodological approach refers to using various research or intervention strategies that are tailored to the processes, structures, networks, relationships, capacities, needs, and temporalities of the human and non-human inhabitants of the site.
Designing for Life Affirmation moves away from extractivist and exploitative practices where social and ecological environments are left depleted, whilst social, economic, and ecological benefits are invested elsewhere. Rather, Designing for Life Affirmation strives to keep value within the local nature-culture ecosystem in which we design.
Questions we might ask ourselves
- Who else lives here? What do they depend on?
- How might we include non-human inhabitants in research, development, and outcomes?
- How might we support the conditions humans and non-humans depend upon?[1]
- How might we foster different forms of belonging to the places we inhabit?[2]
- What might care practices tailored to specific organisms look like?[3]
- How might the distinctive biological affordances of living organisms inhabiting a specific site inform the design, (multiple) use, and end-of-life of Life Affirming Artefacts?[i]
[1] This is sometimes referred to as place-making.
[2] “Forms of belonging to the places we inhabit.” Martín Ávila, Designing for Interdependence: A Poetics of Relating, Designing in Dark Times Series (USA: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022), p. 6.
The Gaelic word ‘Dúchas’ embodies this through a deep-rooted sense of place and belonging to the land.
[3] Organism Specific Care Practices – Karana and others
[i] Karana and others, p. 9.
07
08
Regenerative
Designing for Life Affirmation is regenerative. The vitality and flourishing of life are at the heart of regeneration and seek to support life’s intrinsic capacity to support itself. Regeneration encompasses the renewal, regrowth, or restoration of biotic or abiotic entities.
Designing for Life Affirmation strives to align human systems with the spatio-temporal characteristics of ecosystems. Considering the (eco)systems we engage with and design in holistically entails an acknowledgement of the inherent multi-nodality of living systems.
Designing for Life Affirmation understands that no element exists in isolation, so static solutions do not align with this.
Designing for Life Affirmation sees the dynamic processes, adaptive capacities, and complexities of interdependencies, interconnections, and intra-actions that make up ecosystems as strengths. Regeneration is place-based, as the unique characteristics and capacities of an ecosystem are specific to the context in which they occur.
Designing for Life Affirmation strives to mimic the inherent multi-nodality of resilient ecosystems. Life Affirming Designs aim to support this resilience by enacting diversity in conception, process, and outcome, as thriving emerges from collaboration. By engaging across multiple centres of activity and influence, Designing for Life Affirmation strives to support the capacities of collaborative networks of mutual benefit.
Questions we might ask ourselves
- How might the distinctive biological affordances of living organisms inhabiting a specific site inform the design, (multiple) use, and end-of-life of Life Affirming Artefacts?[i]
- How might the spatio-temporal capacities of organisms and ecosystems inform what regeneration looks like?
- What might a human system aligned with the spatio-temporal characteristics of ecosystems look like?
- How do we support vitality?
- How do we design to facilitate the flow of living artefacts across temporal and ecological scales?[ii]
- How might the temporalities of biotic and abiotic entities within Life Affirming Artefacts be attuned to enable regenerative material and energy flows?[iii]
[i] Karana and others, p. 9.
[ii] Karana and others, p. 9.
[iii] Karana and others, p. 9.
Reflection: Designing As Nature:
Beyond Anthropo-Centrism
“Striving for life-affirmation implies the “de-centering” of humans.”[i]
Designing with an understanding of the needs, structures, processes, capabilities, networks, relationships, and temporalities of ecosystems and biotic and abiotic entities also includes understanding and acknowledging the needs, structures, processes, capabilities, networks, relationships, and temporalities of humans. That is to say that we – humans – do not need to abandon human cultures and practices but rather embody an understanding of humans as one of many actors within rich ecologies.[ii]
De-centering the human does not mean that we must “go back” or regress the developments that have brought human societies to the point they are today. De-centering the human means embracing a new understanding of our place in the world and adopting a practice that dissolves the notion of a centre. Or that said centre is “everywhere, distributed,”[iii] uplifting life itself.
[i] Ávila, p. 9.
[ii] Karana and others, p. 5.
[iii] Ávila, p. 5, 6.
