design · the toolkit

a living design toolkit, not a fixed design process.

There’s no fixed sequence. For each project we pick the tools it needs, and let people, computation and materials inform each other as we go.

cross-link between clustersdraws on an intelligenceyour project combination

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across scales.

Our toolkit operates across multiple scales, from material properties and component geometries to products, buildings and environments.

Possible scales of application, not a workflow. Select one to set it for your project toolkit.

project toolkitempty

Add methods from any cluster to compose the combination a specific project draws on. No project uses every tool.

how we use the toolkit.

These approaches connect, and we come back to them again and again. Every project uses a different mix. We move between understanding, mapping, exploring, computing, making and evolving as the work needs it, guided by people, computation and materials.

toolkit logic

entry is non-linear. A project may begin with an observation, a material experiment, a sketch, a computational model or a manufacturing constraint.

methods are selectable and combinable. One project may use only a subset; methods can operate simultaneously.

relationships are bidirectional. Material discoveries can change the concept; human insights can change parameters; computational findings can change fabrication.

feedback is continuous. Making and testing are ways of discovering, not merely final-stage validation.

scale is variable. The same toolkit can address a material sample, a component, a product, a building or an environmental system.

Select any cluster or intelligence in the diagram to open it.

methodology cluster

understand.

People, context, needs and opportunities.

draws on

12 methods select a term for its definition

Designing from the needs, abilities and behaviour of the people who will use a space or object.

Structured inquiry — observation, interviews, precedent study — that informs decisions before and during design.

Building an understanding of how people experience and feel about a situation, through immersion in their context.

Involving the people affected by a design directly in shaping it, as active contributors rather than subjects.

Designers and stakeholders generating ideas together and sharing authorship of the outcome.

Observing and questioning people in the place where an activity actually happens.

Designing for the whole lived experience over time — sensory, emotional and practical.

Identifying everyone with a stake in the project and keeping them involved in its decisions.

Defining what the problem actually is, and questioning that definition as understanding grows.

Turning observed problems into open, optimistic questions that invite more than one answer.

Alternating between opening up many possibilities and narrowing towards a decision.

Research aimed at longer-term direction — technology, policy, markets — beyond a single brief.

methodology cluster

map.

Systems, relationships and potential.

draws on

12 methods select a term for its definition

Seeing a project as part of interconnected wholes, where changing one part affects the others.

Applying systems thinking to design practice — intervening in relationships, not only objects.

Drawing the actors, flows and dependencies of a system so they can be seen and discussed.

Mapping how people, spaces, materials and programmes relate to and depend on one another.

Diagramming cause-and-effect loops that reinforce or balance each other over time.

Considering effects at several scales at once — detail, building, neighbourhood, region.

Understanding a site as part of living systems — climate, water, soil, species — and designing with them.

Designing so materials and components stay in use, through reuse, repair, disassembly and recycling.

Also part of

Going beyond reducing harm, so a project actively restores the systems it touches.

Designing so a building or product can change use, configuration or capacity over its life.

Also part of

Tracing how value, materials and labour move from source to end of life.

methodology cluster

explore.

Ideas, materials and alternative possibilities.

draws on

12 methods select a term for its definition

Thinking through quick drawing — fast, cheap and ambiguous enough to suggest new readings.

Testing form, space and light through physical models at different scales.

Letting the overall form emerge from the rules and behaviour of individual parts.

Starting from an overall idea or form, then resolving the parts to serve it.

Letting one clear central idea guide decisions across the project.

Designing for possible futures in order to question assumptions about the present.

Starting from how a material behaves and letting it suggest form and use.

Testing a design against narratives of how it might be used, misused or changed.

Breaking a complex problem into smaller parts that can be solved and recombined.

Using abstract drawings to clarify relationships, organisation and intent.

Proposing the most promising explanation or solution from incomplete information, then testing it.

Running quick, cheap tests so weak ideas fail early and teach something.

methodology cluster

compute.

Relationships, simulations and optimisation.

draws on

12 methods select a term for its definition

Using code, algorithms and data as an active part of designing, not only for drafting.

Defining a design through adjustable parameters, so changing one value updates the whole.

Models in which elements are linked by relationships, so a change propagates through every dependency.

Models in which form is a direct, measurable trace of the data, forces or process that produced it — geometry as a record.

Using rules or algorithms to produce many options, then evaluating and selecting among them.

Describing a design as a step-by-step procedure that a computer carries out.

Encoding design logic as explicit rules that govern how parts are placed and combined.

Defining what a design must satisfy — dimensions, tolerances, limits — and solving within those bounds.

Letting measured performance — light, energy, structure, acoustics — steer the form.

Testing behaviour digitally — airflow, daylight, structure — before anything is built.

Discovering shape through forces and material behaviour rather than imposing it.

Systematically searching the range of possible solutions to understand their trade-offs.

methodology cluster

make.

Prototype, fabricate and learn.

draws on

12 methods select a term for its definition

Letting a material’s properties, sources and story lead the design process.

Using the act of making as the primary way of developing the design.

Shaping decisions around the machines, tools and processes that will produce the work.

Using industrial robots as precise, programmable tools for craft-level making.

Combining digital tools with hand skill and material judgement.

Building prototypes to ask questions, not only to confirm answers.

Finding form with physical means — hanging chains, membranes, casts — that let material settle under force.

Testing mixes, processes and finishes to learn what a material can do.

Designing so parts can be produced efficiently, accurately and repeatably.

Designing the sequence, joints and logistics of how parts come together.

Treating material behaviour itself as a form of computation that produces geometry.

Building knowledge and skill through hands-on production.

methodology cluster

evolve.

Test, evaluate and iterate.

draws on

12 methods select a term for its definition

Cycling through design, test and refinement, each round informed by the last.

Checking a design against its requirements through physical or digital tests.

Measuring how a design actually performs against its intentions.

Feeding results back into earlier decisions, so what is learned changes the design.

Designing so a building or product can change use, configuration or capacity over its life.

Also part of

Designing so materials and components stay in use, through reuse, repair, disassembly and recycling.

Also part of

Studying a building in use to learn what worked and what did not.

Deliberately reviewing one’s own process and decisions to improve future work.

Considering a project from material sourcing through use to end of life.

Taking a tested idea from prototype to larger production or deployment.

Letting a design develop across versions and projects, carrying lessons forward.

Making small, ongoing refinements based on evidence.

intelligence

human intelligence.

Empathy
Creativity
Intuition
Critical judgement

most closely informs

Every cluster touches all three intelligences; these are the strongest ties.

intelligence

material intelligence.

Physical behaviour
Material properties
Fabrication constraints
Emergent geometries
Tectonic systems

most closely informs

Every cluster touches all three intelligences; these are the strongest ties.

intelligence

computational intelligence.

Algorithms
Associative relationships
Parametric systems
Simulation
Optimisation
Generative processes

most closely informs

Every cluster touches all three intelligences; these are the strongest ties.

The labels name a shared working vocabulary, not proprietary methods. No project uses all of them.

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