Design and
serious times

This book confronts the relationships between design and sustainability beyond linear visions, inserting the theme in a systemic perspective, with the urgency and passion of the young designer. The text was originally presented as a thesis for Design at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo, in the year 2021.

The distinctive attribute of this book is the multiplicity of knowledge realms manipulated by the author, what I consider to be a primordial requirement to situate design within the scope of politics for nature. The wealth of references, diagrams, and contemporary literature added to the author’s transformative utopias leads us to navigate important theoretical contributions synthesized in her work. It is also relevant to highlight that the protagonism of design is absolutely fundamental in facing the socio-environmental issues of our time, and this book brings concise considerations that are elegantly exposed in this publication.

Strongly inspired by the seminal work of Arturo Escobar, Bruno Latour and Tony Fry, Clara leads us to reflect on our inability to deal with the relationship between humanity and nature, but also on the consequences and what will come after: chaos, catastrophes, emergencies, war.

In each of the chapters, organized in the 3 parts of this book, the author discusses the names and definitions that we have had for a long of Nature and development through the lenses of the political and design. She untangles the reasons why we have immense difficulties in overcoming the complexity of current environmental impasses and alerts us to their terrible and inequitable consequences. We are in a period of profound crisis of a kind we have not experienced in decades. Clara reminds us that Design can have a role.

Perhaps a surprise effect, loaded with possibilities in the visions for design is presented in part C, the latest, illuminated by the many efforts of younger generations of our field (like the author herself) who are confronting our collective challenges with creativity and resilience.

I enthusiastically recommend reading Systemic sustainability: weaving design, politics, and Nature and thank the author for the exchange of ideas, comments, and endless hours of conversations, especially through the Milanese winter of 2020, in the laboratory of my dear colleague Stefano Maffei.