FEMKE COOPS

Complex societal challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss and depletion of resources are becoming increasingly visible. There has always been a need to address these challenges, however this need seems to be bigger now than it has ever been. We are searching for ways to address the challenges of our time and I believe design has a big role to play in this. The systems these challenges are part of, as well as the challenges themselves, are ambiguous, complex and abstract. As design problems have never been clearly defined or easily solved, I believe designers can thrive within these complex environments. We can create design spaces which offer opportunities, rather than getting stuck in the system, because of our ability to combine analysis and creation into synthesis. Analysis helps us to grasp complex societal challenges, learning how they are positioned within the bigger system and understanding how they came to be. By creating, design can make visible what is not, showing..