Degrowth Design
Design Futures/Fiction
Designing for less production and consumption, on purpose.
In practice
Degrowth design applies the economic idea that endless growth is incompatible with a finite planet: instead of designing to sell more units, you design things that last, that share, that repair, that replace rather than add. It is a direct challenge to the commercial logic most design serves, and an increasingly serious brief for products meant to outlive the growth era.
Questions
What is Degrowth Design?
Degrowth design is a practice oriented toward reducing material throughput (fewer, longer-lived, shared and repairable products) rather than maximising sales.
Why do you use Degrowth Design?
Because a design discipline built on selling more things cannot be part of a sustainable future without changing what it optimises for.
How do you use/apply Degrowth Design?
Design for durability, repair and reuse; question whether the product should exist; favour services and sharing over ownership; measure success in use, not units shipped.
When do you use Degrowth Design?
For any brief where sustainability is more than a marketing line, and as a critical lens on every other brief.
Who uses Degrowth Design?
Sustainable and critical designers, and increasingly mainstream product teams under regulatory pressure.
