Audun Formo Hay
Started 2022 PhD Fellow Designing Reflexive Public Service Systems Audun is a PhD fellow at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, researching how design practices for fostering adaptability within public service systems. Before starting his PhD, he worked for...
Haley Fitzpatrick
PHD Fellow 2021-2024 Haley Fitzpatrick is a PhD student in Systems-Oriented Design researching co-creative pathways for regenerative and resilient mountain communities. Before starting her PhD, she was working as an architect in the United States and recently four...
Birger Sevaldson
AHO Profile Author, Web Editor Dr Birger Sevaldson [dipl NCAD PhD] is a professor at the Institute of Design at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), Institute of Design. He is trained as an interior architect and furniture designer. He has been practising...
Cheryl May
Systemic Design Association Web Team Cheryl May is a consultant and doctoral researcher at London South Bank University. Her research is focused on prosocial leadership within Canadian social purpose organizations. She is a four-time executive director who has...Library of Systemic Relations
The library of systemic relations focuses more of our attention on the relations in our work, suggesting ways of marking the relations between nodes in a system.
Book: Designing Complexity
The Methodology and Practice of Systems Oriented Design – Birger Sevaldson’s book for designers in the widest sense, including any individual or organisation that is involved in change processes.
SOD Communications Framework
A communications framework is central to complex situations and design work. Yet it is in complex situations that we experience communication breakdowns resulting in ruptures and misunderstandings.
About Systems Oriented Design
The main mission of SOD is to help designers to become better at dealing with very complex problems. Complex problems are described as problem fields, networks of problems, wicked problems and problematiques.
SOD Origins: Systemic Design as a Field of Possibilities
The idea of systemic design as a pluralistic field opens the possibilities to several different approaches to systemic design that are not only allowed but encouraged.
Related References
Systems resources of note: The list was started in 2009 and is updated occasionally.
Systems Oriented Design in a Nutshell
Systemic design spans design practice and thinking to systems practice and thinking. SOD is a bit closer to design practice.
The Mind Shifts of SOD
We need to make several small shifts in our understanding to truly grasp systems thinking in general and to start to become systemic designers.
Testimonials: SOD & Gigamapping
With a look to the future, there are huge needs for this kind of design competence – to enable sustainable solutions for businesses, organizations and in policymaking.
Gigamap Exemplars
These gigamap exemplars are organised into three main groups: content maps, functional maps, and structural maps. They are from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, the Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Chalmers Technical University and...
Rich Design Research Space
The rich design research space is an inclusive methodological framework and scaffold for research by design. The rich design research space especially addresses the issue of richness in the design processes and design-led research.
Dr. Jairo da Costa Junior
Finalised Jairo da Costa Junior defended his doctoral thesis at the Technical University of Delft (TU Delft), the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). The main supervisor was Professor Jan-Carel Diel. Doctoral research project A SYSTEMS DESIGN APPROACH TO...
Dr. Manuela Aguirre Ulloa
Finalised 2020 Thesis – Transforming public organizations into co-designing cultures: a study of capacity-building programs as learning ecosystems Doctoral Research Project Transforming Public Organizations into Co-designing Cultures As a PhD fellow at The Oslo School...
SOD Creative Process
Each SOD creative process is unique and requires different models, methods, and approaches. Internal R&D project (2018-).
Multiple Perspectives and SOD
It is a good tactic to triangulate between multiple perspectives When trying to understand a system, it is a good tactic to triangulate between different perspectives.
Dr. DEFNE SUNGUROĞLU HENSEL
Finalized 2017 Institution: Oslo School of Architecture and DesignMain supervisor: Birger Sevaldson Doctoral Research Project CONVERGENCE: MATERIAL ADAPTATION AND INFORMATICS IN ARCHITECTURE Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel [MSc EmTech AA Dipl RIBA II] (born 1979, İstanbul,...
Dr. Marie Davidova
Finalised 2018 Institution: Czech Technical University in Prague – Faculty of Architecture MOLAB DepartmentMain Supervisor: Miloš FloriánSecondary supervisor: Birger Sevaldson Final Doctoral Thesis WOOD AS A PRIMARY MEDIUM TO ECO-SYSTEMIC PERFORMANCE: A CASE STUDY IN...
Sense Sharing
Gigamaps are about sharing a sense of complexity. If the team members have a diverging sense of the complexity of the task, this is a problem. The person who thinks it is a simple task will allocate far fewer resources to the project than the person who thinks it is a...
Validating Gigamaps
Validating gigamaps requires that attention is paid to the information build-up of the project. If conducted well, the modes described in this article construct the evidence found on the gigamaps.
The Democracy Files
The Democracy Files is a resource of collected articles supporting our belief that design can play a crucial role in democracy.
Timelines, scenarios, stories
All systems are dynamic, and static network diagrams have one big drawback: they do not describe the dynamics of the system properly. Therefore, timelines are needed as a central part of gigamapping. This article presents some timelines and scenarios. There is a...
Related Approaches
There are three related approaches that are derived from gigamapping: synthesis maps, layered scenario mapping, and metaphor maps. Common to them is that they are narrower framed than the gigamap and are more specialised towards a purpose. The gigamap is intentionally...
Leverage Point investigation
Donella Meadows suggested the concept of Leverage Points (Norwegian: Inflytelsespunkter). Leverage points are places in a system where one can efficiently influence the system. The ZIP-analysis and the impact and threshold analyses cover some but not all of this. It...
Sigrun Lurås
Started 2022 PhD Fellow Sigrun is an interaction designer with a special interest in designing for complex contexts. In her PhD research, she focused on how to understand designing for complex, high-risk control environments and how systemic design may be of...