Historically, the concept of design has been gradually expanded from referring mainly to the development of concrete products to encompassing a far greater variety of practices, such as the design of organizational structures or even entire societies.

Design theorist Richard Buchanan has coined the term ‘the four orders of design’ to describe the development of the field from traditional areas as graphic communication through industrial design over the design of services and interactions to new forms of organizational and systemic design.

However, our argument is that if we are to address the global challenges we currently face, we will need a fifth order of design for the planet. And this new dimension requires that we take all artefacts and systems that make up the human world into consideration as we plan a more sustainable future with awareness of the consequences for the global ecosystem that are the very prerequisite for the existence of life on this planet.

The entities to be considered include both tangible objects that we can influence directly – such as the materials and technologies we choose for our products – and abstract systems that seem to have their own life, and which we often experience only in piecemeal form, such as the systemic structures that have led to global warming.

The goal behind is to start of movement of putting a definitive end to the homocentric perspective: no more ‘humanity first’. Instead, the mutual goal must be to develop a new foundation for design and design thinking, one that puts the well-being of the planet at the core of all our decisions.

Read more in Ida Engholm: Design for the New World: From Human Design to Planet Design.