Looking, listening #5
Inspiration unplanned.
Last week I wrote a newsletter—it was one of those that flowed out of my fingertips at lightening speed. It happens occasionally, on lucky days where I end up sat down to write just at the optimum moment of brain processing combined with excitement and energy from a new idea or thought.
I got to the last line and knew it would be a quick edit.
BAM—the whole thing vanished.
I pressed undo, nothing. Redo, nothing. I have no idea where it went. I thought it might reappear on another window but it’s never to be seen again. Gone somewhere into the ether.
For whatever reason that newsletter wasn’t supposed to grace your inboxes. Maybe one day I’ll re-write it, maybe a won’t. A lesson in letting go perhaps?
So instead I’ve decided to share with you some other peoples hard work that has gone to plan—the things that have been getting my attention this month. I hope you’ll enjoy it all the same.
Care-full futures
From creator to steward, where all designers should be heading (in my opinion).
Elena, the author of Care-full Futures invites us to steward the conditions for transformation. If you’re not sure what that means for you have a read of the article.
To me this is the crux of what designers should and need to be doing. It is what I for one aspire to do. Drop the ego. Forget the glossy magazines. Become a steward of change.
“Creative stewardship invites us to reimagine the role of the creative not as the originator of ideas, but as a weaver, facilitator, and translator across contexts.”
What if creativity wasn’t just about what we produce — but how we sense, connect, and care?
Assemble - Earth, lightly
Straw and clay, shown off in a new way.
Natural building is not new. In fact it’s the complete opposite of new. But designers are needed to popularise it again and model how it can be used within contemporary structures. To show it off in all it’s glory and remind us what we can do with the most rudimentary materials.
“Light Earth building holds great potential as a construction method that can create large volumes whilst remaining lightweight. It shifts from extractive to generative economies by using grown materials and tapping into existing waste streams, and it can achieve effective acoustic and thermal insulation with only a fraction of earthen material typically required in earth building. By combining this with a more artistically led approach, we hope to both expand the palette and vocabulary of earth building, and to accelerate its uptake and accessibility in the contemporary building industry.”–Assemble (via Instagram)
Common Treasures - Vol 1. Land food & farming
With these change makers at the keyboard, ready yourself for some big thinking.
Not one I have read yet but very much on my reading list.
Including words from Maria Benjamin, Philip Trevelyan, Megan Willoughby, Charlotte Hollins, Stella Peyerl, Stephen Davies, Jez Ralph, Clare Hill, Alice Clark, Colleen McCulloch, Stefan Laxness & Kaye Song.
Jane Goodall
A legend, of the best kind. Be more Jane.
After watching Becoming Jane (Netflix) I wished to be an introvert so I could be content only in the company of animals and do great things. Sadly it’s not the case.
But Jane’s work and fierce determination transcends disciplines. She herself is a beacon of hope, precisely what she set out to share in her later years.
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.
— Jane Goodall
Terrain talks
Architecture as a social act. A date for the diary.
See you there?