(After) Design

Bringing together global and transdisciplinary perspectives, this volume moves beyond conventional approaches to designing and speculates what might come after design in the modern paradigm.

Arguing for the generative role of designing as a form of thought and action, renowned scholars examine a range of futures and contexts, emerging terminology for design activism outside the Western tradition, and theoretical and philosophical critiques of contemporary design discourse. On one hand, contributors recognize the limitations and harm inherent to design professions, such as the role of design in maintaining an exclusive luxury economy that is damaging socially and ecologically. At the same time, they highlight the ways in which a more expansive concept of designing can be a vehicle and catalyst to unleash creative possibilities.

Chapters explore a wide variety of case studies including the transformative practices of Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi, a planetary practice of design driven by sustainability, a catastrophic car carrier fire and the need for designers to reclaim their agency, and new practices of solidarity and creative resistance in the context of French Caribbean horticulture. Building on Staszowski and Tassinari's (Designing) Beyond the Modern (Bloomsbury, 2026) and anchored in the philosophy of Ingold, Ranciere, and Latour, among other important thinkers, the contributors embrace speculative practice, our planetary existence, indigenous cultures, 'sensible' knowledge, and a circular understanding of production, consumption, and waste.

A timely and necessary exploration into the potential of design to dismantle its inherent modernist structures to one of pluriversaility, After Design advocates for a practice that is inclusive, environmentally conscious, and culturally sensitive.