What designers can learn from the Transition Movement?

1. Design
& Transition
What can designers learn from the Transition Movement?
Jody Joanna Boehnert
www.eco-labs.org

2. Design
How can design facilitate -
‘a rapid transition to a more restrained
& elegant state called sustainability’ David Orr
?

3. Informed by ecological literacy design is now
posed for a radical change.
The design industry must now prepare for a
steep learning curve and look for methods
which are leading change.

4. The Transition movement is a community
design initiative that facilitates re-localization
for mitigation and adaptation to post-peak oil
and climate change.

5. Transition Town Initiatives
TransiTion Town
1. Totnes, England
mate Change isEngland
2. Penwith, happening. Peak Oil is imminent.
brixton
3. Kinsale, Ireland
r world is 4.changing. Will we design that change
Ivybridge, England
5. Falmouth, England
6. Moretonhampstead, England
suffer the 7. Lewes, England
consequences of our inability to act?
8. Stroud, England
9. Ashburton, England
10. Ottery St. Mary, England
SING TO THE CHALLENGE
11. Bristol, England
12. Brixton, England ***
13. Forest Row, England
nsition Town Brixton is a community-led initiative,
14. Mayfield, England
15. Glastonbury, England
engage all sectors of the community in designing our
16. Lostwithiel, England
17. Forest of Dean, England
al pathway from oil dependency to a better low energy,
18. Nottingham, England
19. Wrington, England
w carbon future. Our aims are:
20. Brighton&Hove,
21. Portobello, Scotland
22. Market Harborough, England
raise awareness of Climate Change and Peak Oil.
23. Sunshine Coast, Australia
24. West Kirby, England
‘vision’ a better low-energy future for Brixton.
25. Llandeilo, Wales
26. Bro Ddyfi, Wales
design the ‘Brixton Energy Descent Action Plan’.
27. Whitstable, England
28. Marsden & Slaithwaite, England
make it happen.
29. Frome, England
30. Brampton, England
31. Isle of Wight, England
32. Waiheke Island, New Zealand
O RY S O FA R
33. Orewa, New Zealand
34. Dunbar, Scotland
ring our first year TTB has held many events, film
35. Rhayader, Wales
36. Seaton, England
sentations, discussions, visionings, & working group
37. Bath, England
38. Exeter, England
39. Isle of Man
etings. TTB has worked with Lambeth on the FUTURE
40. Canterbury, England
41. Kapiti District, New Zealand
IXTON regeneration plan. TTB has initiated the
42. Carbon Neutral Biggar, a Transition Town
43. Presteigne
UNDANCE Project; a green mapping & urban food
44. Wolverton
45. Leicester
46. Holywood
owing project.
47. Westcliff-on-Sea
48. Isles of Scilly
49. Liverpool South
N WA R D S 50. Norwich
51. Tring
52. Crediton
will continue raising awareness, visioning and research-
53. Boulder, CO, USA
54. North Howe
future possibilities. We plan to actively involve more
55. Lampeter
56. South Petherton
the Brixton community. We will form more working
57. Armidale, NSW
58. Chichester
59. Bell, VIC
ups to vision and plan towards creating the Brixton
60. Bellingen, NSW
61. Berkhamsted
ergy Descent Action Plan. We will begin our Reskilling
62. Forres
63. Sandpoint, ID, USA
urses for a more localised, low energy lifestyle. We will
64. Opotiki Coast, New Zealand
65. Newcastle, NSW
66. Chepstow
ate visible practical projects to realise the vision. We
working to over 150 March Brixton Local Exchange Trading
& revive the 2009 Rethink, Reconnect & Relocalise.
heme, to create a Brixton Food Hub and many other
jects. PROGRAmmE OF EvENTS

7. Ecological Literacy
The first step in our endeavor to build sustainable communities
must be to become ‘ecologically literate’, i.e. to understand of the
principles of organization, common to all living systems, that
ecosystems have evolved to sustain the web of life…
This systemic understanding of life allows us to formulate a
set of principles of organization that may be identified as the
basic principles of ecology and used as guidelines for building
sustainable human communities...
Thus, ecological literacy, or ‘ecoliteracy’, must become a critical
skill for politicians, business leaders, professionals in all spheres,
and should be the most important part of education at all levels.
Fritjof Capra, 2002

8. system
crisis

9. Footprinting,
lifecyle analysis,
cradle to cradle,
TM
One Planet Living ,
biomimicry, etc.
Researchers have created tools that can help designers
grasp complex environmental information.

10. Transformation
Design (The UK Design Council)
1 Defining and redefining the brief
2 Collaborating between disciplines
3 Employing participatory design techniques
4 Building capacity, not dependency
5 Designing beyond traditional solutions
6 Creating fundamental change

11. Transition
Movement
The Transition movement is based on the
assumption that we are approaching the
end of the age of cheap oil, and that climate
change and peak oil are twin challenges that
must be addressed simultaneously.

12. Despite the big changes ahead, the Transition
movement holds that the move towards
localized energy efficient living could make a
world that is better than our own.

13. 4 Key Assumptions
1. That life with dramatically lower energy
consumption is inevitable.
2. That communities presently lack resilience to
withstand energy shocks.
3. That we have to act collectively.
4. That the collective genius of groups is powerful.

14. 1. Energy Descent
Peak Oil & Climate Change

15. 2. Resilience to
Energy Shocks
‘Climate change says we should change,
whereas peak oil says we will be forced to
change’. Hopkins
 Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI)

16. 3. Collective Action
The Transition approach attempts to engage entire
communities in the process of change. New methods such
as citizens juries or panels, round tables, visioning, charettes
and new ‘consensus conferences’ have become necessary,
and they arise from the realisation that environmental
values are not preformed, but rather that they emerge out
of debate.

17. 4. Genius
of Groups

18. 6 Principles of Transition
1. Visioning
2. Inclusion
3. Awareness Raising
4. Resilience
5. Psychological Insights
6. Appropriate Scaled
Solutions

19. 1. Visioning
Central to the Transition approach is the idea we can only
pro-actively move towards something if we can imagine it.
The Transition movement also works with visioning
scenarios (adaptation / evolution / collapse) to come to
terms with factors driving change.

20. Response
Proactive
Le
an
- fix
no
Ec
on
om ch
y
Te
Rapid Depletion Slow Depletion
Bu
p se rn
lla -o
Reactive
Response
o ut
C
4 Energy Scenarios - based on work by Bryn Davidson: www.dynamiccities.square.com

21. 0
1
2
3
Billion of BBLS/ YR
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
1900 1925 1950 1975 2000 2025 2050 2075 2100
Years
Rob Hopkins inverts the classic peak oil graph.

22. Our best chance will emerge from our ability to engage people in a vision of transition to a lower energy future as an
adventure, something in which we can invest our energy.

23. 2. Inclusion
The Transition movement seeks to facilitate dialogue between
different groups.

24. 3. Awareness Raising
The Transition movement holds that the end of the age of
oil is a confusing time. We are constantly exposed to and
bewildered by mixed messages. The movement aims to set
out its case clearly by giving people the key arguments.
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& still save th earn a living
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25. 4. Resilience
Resilience refers to the ability of a system to hold together
and maintain its ability to function in the face of change and
shocks from the outside.

26. 5. Psychological Insights
‘healthy functioning requires that we have faith in the
future, without this confidence; our trust in the world
is damaged. Damaged trust can lead to many neurotic
reactions, narcissism, depression, paranoia, and
compulsion’.
‘post- petrole
um
stress disord
er ’

27. 6. Credible &
Appropriate
Scale
Solutions

28. Basis of Transition:
Permaculture
Permaculture, a design philosophy based
on ecological principles and ethics for
working with nature in building systems
to support human existence.

29. Energy
Descent
Action
Plan

30. ‘scalable
microcosms
of hope’

31. www.eco-labs.org