An ancient Sufi story tells of a city whose inhabitants were blind. One day, a king arrived at the head of his army, riding a mighty elephant. Curious about this strange animal, some of the blind men rushed forward to touch the elephant. Each came away with a different conclusion: “An elephant is a brush,” said one; “An elephant is a snake,” said another; “An elephant is a tree trunk,” added a third. The lesson of this story is clear: to truly understand something, its parts must be understood in relation to the whole. Systems thinking can help us do just that.
As Donella Meadows explains in her seminal book Thinking in Systems (2008), systems thinking is the ability to understand how the parts of a system interact to produce the behaviour of the whole. It is a “way of thinking that gives us the freedom to identify root causes of problems and see new opportunities.”
Systems Thinking and Circular Design
Systems thinking plays a dual role in circular design: it acts as both an enabling tool and a conceptual lens. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, systems thinking helps us identify root causes, implement better solutions, and provide the necessary framework for understanding circularity.
But what is a system? A system is a set of elements or parts that are coherently organized and interconnected in a pattern or structure, producing a characteristic set of behaviours—often defined as its function or purpose.
Exploring Systemic Structures with the Iceberg Model
In the upcoming CiD Barcelona workshop (24-26 February 2025), we will introduce students to a systems thinking approach to explore circular design challenges such as keep-in-use/re-use strategies for urban circularity, bio-regional material flows, and storytelling for bio-based materials, products, and services.
In the first exercise, we will use the Iceberg Model—a diagnostic tool that helps uncover systemic structures and identify blind spots that lead organizations or societies to reproduce undesirable results. The model highlights underlying structures, thought paradigms, and hidden sources of behaviour. When ignored, these elements keep systems locked into repeating patterns of the past.
Source: Iceberg Model – Ecochallenge.org
By making these unseen layers visible, the Iceberg Model enables us to break free from outdated paradigms and design solutions that are innovative, sustainable, and systemic.
The CiD Barcelona workshop will challenge participants to think beyond the surface, leveraging systems thinking to tackle the complexities of circular design. Together, we will uncover new opportunities and co-create solutions that drive sustainable and circular approach to construction and design.