On Sunday, April 2nd, Next Level Lab Faculty Director Dr. Tina Grotzer presented the concept of EarthXDesign at the CareXDesign Conference at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The yearly conference draws leaders in the field of Human-Centered Design, including in this year’s slate of speakers, Kathleen Brandenburg of IA Collaborative, Juhan Sonin of GoInvo and MIT, Khalil Louisy of Bloomberg Center for Cities, and Anmol Mehra of Plugin House. The theme for this year asked, “How do we create a culture of care in our community?” The conference speakers introduced many thoughtful ways in which empathy for human experience can center the design process. Grotzer invited the audience to adopt a broader lens centered on design for the planet—one that recognizes that all of human experience unfolds on our small blue planet and that it is essential to center on EarthXDesign in order to design sustainably for humans and other organisms on Earth. She shared moves related to designing with Earth at the center in contrast to humans at the center and gave examples of designs that are Earth Resonant. This talk drew upon the work of the Green Jobs Team at the Next Level Lab including Dr. Lydia Cao, Isabella Capeci, and Alyssa Gandolph. You can read more about EarthXDesign in this article posted on our site for Earth Day.
