Tiina Merikoski | Activity | Systems Community of Inquiry

Tiina Merikoski posted an update in the group Systemicists: 10 months, 1 week ago

Hi David and all!

I work with Aija Staffans at the Aalto University Department of Architecture with different research projects investigating sustainability in land use planning and design. She encouraged me to post on this blog.

I’d be interested in your thoughts on resilience thinking in terms of planning and building communities. I had the opportunity to hear William Reed’s insights on sustainable planning, and I’d be very interested to hear your reflections on that. His speech can be found at: https://blogs.aalto.fi/sustainablecommunities/2011/03/15/william-reed-on-sustainability-and-becoming-a-whole/

At the moment we are finalizing a publication looking at sustainability in planning of tourism destinations (in nordic and alpine conditions). For this, I’d appreciate your input and would be happy to exchange thoughts on sustainability and systems thinking!

Thanks!
- David Ing replied 10 months ago
  
  @tiinamaria Thanks for pointing out the blog post on the Sibbesborg competition, with the link to Bill Reed’s web video presentation.
  
  I’ve posted a digest of Bill Reed’s presentation that I wrote to keep track of his content.
  
  I was impressed at Bill Reed centering on the idea of wholeness, and centering around human life as system of focus for sustainability. He seems well versed in the systems sciences, specifically citing Humberto Maturana, and recommending the insights of systems ecologists and systems biologists who can serve as trackers.
  
  In relation to the systems thinking classes in the Creative Sustainability program, Reed really addressed the orientation of both courses. The CS0004 orientation towards systemic communities centered on methods of engaging the dialogue with people involved in the changes. The CS0005 orientation towards planners and designers centered on the role of experts in facilitating the changes.
  
  Reed directly spoke to four of the five principles of supply side sustainability listed by Allen, Tainter and Hoekstra (2003).
  
  (1) Manage for productive systems rather than for their outputs.
  (2) Manage systems by managing their contexts.
  (3) Identify what dysfunctional systems lack and supply only that.
  (4) Deploy ecological processes to subsidize management efforts, rather than conversely.
  (5) Understand the problem of diminishing returns to problem solving.
  
  Reed spoke to the fifth principle implicitly, in the Teton River homes that were to be designed in tight wedges, so that impacts on the watershed would be distributed.
  
  To be clear, Reed did not use the term ”resilience” throughout his presentation (a word that @tiinamaria uses), and spoke to ”sustainability” … actually beyond into the restorative and the regenerative. The term ”resilience’ would tend to be more common among the Technical System Designs of the ”conventional”, and the ”green”.
  
  In the case of Sibbesborg, the challenge should be the typical question for systems thinkers: what is the system to be design, and which is/are the context(s) to be managed.