Designing Radical Adaptation: Why designers must lead the shift from collapse to regeneration
- rhea18125
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 9 hours ago
We are designing organisations, places or products on a planet where the old rules no longer apply.
The question is no longer if our life-supporting systems will collapse, but how we will mitigate damage and adapt - and how designers, of all people, can lead the way.
The environmental, social and economic metacrisis is unravelling.
Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth: the data is in, and it’s dire.
Biodiversity is collapsing. Since 1970, populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish have declined by 69% globally. The WWF’s 2024 Living Planet Report warns that we are nearing irreversible tipping points—from the collapse of the Amazon rainforest to the die-off of coral reefs—each of which could trigger cascading failures across the life-supporting systems. Once these thresholds are crossed, recovery may not be possible within human lifetimes, if at all.
Climate tipping points are no longer theoretical. The Amazon is now at risk of becoming a savanna, releasing billions of tonnes of CO₂ and accelerating global warming beyond our control. The Arctic’s permafrost is thawing, releasing methane at rates not accounted for in most climate models. Scientists now warn that even if we limit warming to 1.5°C – which has now been deemed out of reach, some systems are already past the point of no return (Global tipping points, 2025).
Inequalities are fuelling societal instability. Global income inequality between countries has slightly improved. However, within nations—especially advanced economies like the UK—wealth gaps are widening. The richest 1% continue to amass disproportionate wealth, while the bottom 40% struggle to meet basic needs. This isn’t just a moral crisis; it’s a recipe for social collapse. As the King’s College and Fairness Foundation report in 2025 put it, growing inequality is “undermining social cohesion” and risks “further deterioration without intervention”.
We’re overshooting our planetary boundaries. The Doughnut Economics model, which maps human well-being and ecological ceilings, shows that we are overshooting 6 out of 9 planetary boundaries (Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2023) - climate change, biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, and land conversion—while still failing to meet the basic needs of billions.
Seven of nine planetary boundaries now breached - Stockholm resilience center, 2025
This is not a future scenario. It is our present reality and things will get worse before they get better.
Yet, in design circles, we still talk about “sustainability” as if tinkering at the edges will be enough. It won’t. The time for mitigation alone has passed. As you can learn at the Adapting to climate change workshop, we need to mitigate to avoid the unmanageable AND properly adapt to manage the unmanageable.
Extract from Adapting to Climate Change Workshop
What we need now is RADICAL adaptation: a fundamental redesign of how we live, build, and create, rooted in the understanding that some damage is irreversible, some systems must be let go, and others must be transformed from their roots up.
RADICAL (adj) late 14c., "originating in the root or ground;" of body parts or fluids, "vital to life," from Latin radicalis "of or having roots," from Latin radix (genitive radicis) "root" (from PIE root *wrād- "branch, root"). The basic sense of the word in all meanings is "pertaining or relating to a root or roots," hence "thoroughgoing, extreme." Source: Etymonline
Why adaptation is not enough - and why we must radically redesign our systems
Adaptation is often too reactive and many adaption measures can result in "maladaptation": building higher walls, installing air conditioning, or tweaking products to survive in a hotter, scarcer world.
But radical adaptation - regenerative adaptation - goes further. It asks: How can we redesign our systems or design new systems so that adapting to collapse also mitigates its root causes?
Think building a life boat vs patching a leaking ship.
Three tools for designing regeneration and resilience
1 - The Doughnut Economics framework
The Doughnut Economics Action Lab, founded by economist Kate Raworth, offers a powerful tool for this work. The model’s two concentric rings represent the social foundation (ensuring no one lacks life’s essentials) and an ecological ceiling (the nine planetary boundaries). The goal? To operate in the sweet spot between the two – the doughnut - a space that is ecologically safe and socially just.
(Amsterdam’s Circular Strategy 2020–2025 is a leading example. The city is using the Doughnut to guide everything from urban planning to economic policy, aiming to eliminate waste, regenerate natural systems, and ensure equitable access to resources. Projects like “Doughnut Deals” in the Bijlmer neighborhood show how community-led initiatives can create both social and ecological value—restoring local ecosystems while addressing housing, food security, and employmentasranetwork.org+1.)
The good news is well designed adaptation and mitigation usually create virtuous circles. When a city like Amsterdam uses the Doughnut to guide its urban planning and economic policy, solutions such as greening its rooftops don’t just reduce heat island effects; they also improve air quality, manage stormwater, and create jobs (ASRA Network: Doughnut Model in Amsterdam, 2025). When farmers adopt regenerative agriculture, they’re not just making soil more resilient to drought; they’re also sequestering carbon, restoring biodiversity and increasing their financial resilience.
This is the power of designing regenerative adaptation: solutions that heal rather than just endure.
The Doughnut Economics model
Check out our regenerative business model design workshops for more info.
2 - The Three Horizons framework: Navigating the transition
The Three Horizons framework, developed by Bill Sharpe, helps us visualize how to move from extractive systems (Horizon 1) to regenerative ones (Horizon 3) through a turbulent but creative middle space (Horizon 2). Horizon 2 is where the real work happens—where old systems break down and new ones emerge.
For designers, this means:
Horizon 1: Acknowledge what’s no longer working. The linear, wasteful, growth-obsessed economy is dying. Let it go.
Horizon 2: Experiment with disruptive innovations. Think circular product design, modular architecture, biomimicry, or community-owned energy grids.
Horizon 3: Envision and build the future. What does a city look like when it’s designed for resilience, equity, and regeneration?
The Three Horizons Framework Source: Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum, p. 2.
3 - ArkH3 systemic foresight approach
ArkH3 is a sustainable business consultancy advocating for radically transforming how Business leaders should lead their organisation through the polycollapse. ArkH3 invites Big Business to "uncover and accept systemic causes of existential threats to human society and business – including retro engineering action plans from points of no return - to define proportional, systemic action". Check out their resources.
The key is to start moving forwards now. We don’t have time. Every extra ton of CO2 we pour into the atmosphere will have effects for two generations…PFAS introduced in the biosphere today will be around for centuries. The transitions we make today will determine whether we spiral into chaos or step into a new era of thriving within planetary limits.
Why designers are uniquely positioned to lead
Most people want CHANGE but very few wants to BE THE CHANGE or LEAD THE CHANGE.
Designers – whether they shape cities, landscapes, clothing, digital or physical products or organisations – have unique skills for this moment:
Systemic thinking. You see connections others miss—how a building’s materials affect local ecosystems, how a product’s lifecycle impacts global supply chains, how a policy change ripples through communities. This is the mindset we need to navigate the polycrisis.
Facilitation of collaboration and co-creation. The challenges ahead require bridging disciplines, sectors, and worldviews. Designers excel at bringing diverse stakeholders together to co-create solutions.
Out-of-the-box thinking. When others see constraints, designers see opportunities. The collapse of old systems is not just a threat; it’s an invitation to invent what comes next.
User-centred culture. They know how to collect user insight to design and test solutions that work for several types of users.
Story-telling. Systemic change is about rewriting stories. Designers can create and bring to life narratives, ideas and prototypes to help stakeholders project themselves into a desirable future
Resourcefulness. Designers thrive under constraint and can devise frugal solutions that require less resources to build and run.
But with great power comes great responsibility. Every design decision has far reaching consequences. The question is no longer Can we design our way out of this? but When do we start?
Your adaptation journey starts now
This is not a call for blind optimism. The road ahead will be hard. T here will be grief for what’s been lost, frustration with the pace of change, and moments of doubt. But there will also be purpose, solace, and joy in the redesign process.
A few steps to begin:
Upskill yourself to understand planetary systems and resource scarcity through a Planetary Boundaries Fresco workshop or reading through the Stockholm Resilience Centre material. Check out the resources mentioned above. Follow a course by The School of System Change.
Immerse yourself in regeneration success stories to get you inspired and motivated. Here are three I recommend:
The Biggest little farm documentary by John Chester
Wilding, the book about the rewilding of the Knepp Estate by Isabella Tree
The Regenerative Enterprise Book by Neils de Fraguier
Assess your personal impact and start your individual mitigation and adaptation journey. Map your own impact against the Doughnut’s social and ecological boundaries. Calculate your carbon footprint thoroughly and see how you can redesign your life to reduce it by 50% or bring it under 5 tonnes of CO2 over the next two years. Think about how you can adapt your house or neighbourhood to degraded life-supported systems. Involve your family if you have one. Identify the psychological, social and economic barriers to change.
Do the same at work. Start with the Doughnut mapping of your product, service of entire organisation if you can. Where are you contributing to overshoot? Where are your risks? Where can you create resilience and restore? Involve your company stakeholders.
Redesign for regeneration. Use frameworks like Doughnut Economics, Three Horizons and ArkH3 to guide your projects. Ask: How can this not just do less harm, but actively heal and protect us from the polycollapse?
Engage your ecosystem. Adaptation can’t happen in isolation. Collaborate with the entire organisation, partners and suppliers, local communities, policymakers, and other designers to scale your impact.
The planetary polycollapse is not a problem to be solved from the outside. It’s a reality to be navigated from within -- by each of us, in our own contexts, with the tools we have.
For designers, those tools are powerful indeed.
The question is: What world will you start designing today?
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