Lowlands

We call this space Lowlands in reference to Donald Schön’s idea of the “swampy lowlands”: places where problems are messy, complex, and resistant to straightforward solutions. But rather than treating this as a warning, we treat it as an invitation. In times of ecological crisis and social transformation, design educators and students must navigate uncertainty, contradiction, and incomplete knowledge. The Lowlands are where linear planning fails, and where more situated, collaborative, and improvisational approaches become necessary. This blog collects our inquiries into these Lowlands: design-led experiments, speculative exercises, and reflections on what it takes to cultivate eco-social literacies in a world that is rapidly shifting. We move forward not by fixing the terrain, but by learning to read it.

We are researchers and students of the Lucerne School of Design, Film and Art (HSLU) – Master Eco-Social Design – and the National Institute of Design India (NID).

This blog is made possible through funding from the Swiss State Secretary for Education, Research & Innovation (SERI), the ZHAW Leading House South Asia & Iran, as part of the project "Collaborative Exploration in Eco-Social Design: Fostering Cross-Cultural Insights" between Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the National Institute of Design India.