Talk, Panel or Interview Beyond Solutions: Designing What Designs. MetaDesign and the Architecture of Possibility

Join us for a discussion about MetaDesign between Remy Bourganel and Don Norman.

We are entering a decisive decade in which the structures that once sustained innovation—linear planning, rigid governance, industrialised problem-solving—are increasingly inadequate for a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world. Climate instability, AI proliferation, geopolitical fragmentation, and systemic inequality are not isolated challenges; they are deeply interconnected patterns of change.

MetaDesign is not simply “designing design”; it is the craft of designing the conditions for design to emerge, evolve, and regenerate across contexts and timeframes. It offers leaders, innovators, and policy-makers a systemic and reflexive approach—one that integrates living systems thinking, collective intelligence, and long-term ethics to steer transformation with resilience and purpose.

This talk will show why MetaDesign is not a theoretical luxury but a practical necessity for anyone shaping products, services, policies, or cultures in today’s reality—and tomorrow’s.

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Structure & Flow (1 hour)

1. The World Has Changed — Our Design Approach Hasn’t (10 min)
• Opening hook: A brief, vivid story illustrating the collapse of a well-intentioned innovation because it ignored systemic conditions.
• The limits of conventional design thinking in a VUCA world.
• The need to design not just solutions but the conditions that allow adaptive, sustainable solutions to emerge.

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2. What is MetaDesign? (10 min)
• Origin story: from Van Onck’s systematic parameters, Mendini’s cultural framing, to Fischer & Giaccardi’s co-evolving environments.
• Three foundational principles:
1. Evolving Reflective Frameworks (process)
2. Self-evolving Living Systems (structure)
3. Ethics of Life and Futures (purpose)
• How these principles differ from—and complement—design thinking, service design, or systems design.

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3. Why MetaDesign Now? (15 min)

Three converging pressures making MetaDesign essential:
1. Complex interdependencies — Designing in nested, interacting systems.
2. Rapid technological agency — AI designing at scale and speed beyond human cycles.
3. Planetary urgency — The shift from sustainability to regeneration.

Here you connect with your “Sense | Compose | Orchestrate” triad:
• Sense: Detect emerging patterns and signals across systems.
• Compose: Align values, strategies, and structures.
• Orchestrate: Enable multiple actors to co-evolve towards shared futures.

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4. MetaDesign in Practice (15 min)

Case studies showing the breadth and depth of MetaDesign:
• Nokia Animism: a generative metaphor framework leading to 120+ innovations.
• Donut Economics applied to city planning: a design frame shaping policy, infrastructure, and cultural narratives.
• Officina Alessi: MetaDesign as cultural invention through modular variation and storytelling.

For each, highlight:
• The frame that was designed.
• How it enabled continuous adaptation.
• The systemic impact over time.

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5. From MetaDesign to MetaLeadership (7 min)
• Why organisations need leaders who design the conditions for creativity, governance, and adaptation.
• MetaDesign as a strategic compass for steering complexity without falling into control or chaos.
• The role of shared narratives and generative tools in sustaining transformation.

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6. Call to Action & Reflection (3 min)
• Invite the audience to shift their focus: from asking “What should we design?” to “How do we design the conditions so that design thrives?”
• Suggest first steps: mapping their own system’s enabling and constraining conditions; experimenting with small, generative frames; embracing a regenerative ethic.

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Learning Outcomes

Participants will leave with:
1. A clear, concise understanding of what MetaDesign is and how it differs from other design approaches.
2. A mental model (process–structure–purpose) for applying MetaDesign in their own contexts.
3. Inspiration from real-world cases across industries and scales.
4. Practical prompts to begin “designing the conditions” within their organisations or communities.

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Audience Fit

Ideal for:
• Leaders and managers in innovation, transformation, or strategy.
• Designers and architects working in complex systems.
• Policy-makers and urban planners.
• Educators and researchers in design, foresight, and sustainability.

About the Host

Remy Bourganel, Don Norman