Design Blindness in Sustainable Development: From Closed to Open Systems Design Thinking

The fields of urban ecology, ecological design and environmental ethics are essential elements of sustainable urbanism. Thus far, however, these fields really only contemplate eco-restoration, regeneration and resilience. To achieve sustainability, urban areas must be retrofitted to be net positive; that is, to expand future options, diversity and ecology relative to pre-industrial conditions. It is contended that the failure to do so is because the methods and metrics of sustainable urbanism were influenced by decision theory. Decision theory is ‘bounded’ systems thinking as it is designed to choose among alternatives or pathways. The resulting analyses and tools are negative as, for example, they allow social gains to balance out ecological losses. Design, in the sense of ‘open’ systems thinking, is needed to increase future options and add multiple benefits across many dimensions and scales. Key sustainability strategies in urban ecology, ecological design and environmental ethics, such as eco-efficiency, interest balancing and closing resource loops, reflect closed systems thinking. ‘Positive Development’ would require eco-positive design as well as eco-efficiency, an eco-positive ethic as well as procedural fairness or equity, and open systems thinking as well as closed loop systems. A tool is provided to illustrate how eco-positive design can be assessed.