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A Life-centred Futures Project

A life-centred mattress from the future

A workshop set in 2030, where participants design with future tech, life-centred design, and a non-human persona to speculate a future life-centred version of an everyday product

Logo for Speculative Futures Sydney

A Life-centred Futures Project

A life-centred mattress from the future

A workshop set in 2030, where participants design with future tech, life-centred design, and a non-human persona to speculate a future life-centred version of an everyday product

About

In May 2023, I ran a Life-centred Futures Workshop with Speculative Futures Sydney.

The workshop was set in 2030, where participants designed with future tech, life-centred design, and a non-human persona to speculate a future life-centred version of an everyday product

In four teams, we explored a future where the world prioritises repairing and reusing over making new things by designing a future, life-centred version of an everyday, ubiquitous product that uses a lot of resources and creates a lot of landfill—mattresses.

A human hand holding an expo lanyard that reads "We (re)made it", with the two design books "future Scouting' and "The Life-centred Design Guide" in the background

Designing a sustainable and regenerative mattress and system

We used strategies from The Life-centred Design Guide and Future Scouting with future tech innovation and localised wisdom to redesign the manufacturing, supply, use, and reuse of mattresses, millions of which are made every year unsustainably and end up in landfill.

Non-human persona—protecting the River Systems

We also explored how the future life-centred mattress system could regenerate the non-human it impacted—the river systems that get polluted by its manufacturing and landfill.

A non-human persona for "River Systems"

Future speculations

With a mixture of future thinking, sustainability, regeneration, and humour, participants evolved and presented a spectrum of great ideas, including:

  • Using biodegradable materials embedded with seeds and fish eggs so that at the mattress’ end of life they could be planted at the river’s edge to regenerate with new plant and fish life
  • Using digital twin technology to show us the future environmental impacts of material choices so we can design better now
A future life-centred-mattress concept
A future life-centred-mattress concept
A future life-centred-mattress concept
A future life-centred-mattress concept

Thanks to everyone who participated

And to Speculative Futures Sydney ↗ for hosting!

The Life-centred Design Guide book

Take the lead

Lead the way by redesigning your products and business to reduce environmental and social harm and regenerate the people and environments your system relies on.

“The ideas really resonated with me as I’ve felt this growing unease with human centred design’s echo chamber”

“Super helpful tools for designers… I’ll be sharing them with the students.”

“An amazing book about the topic.”

#2 Amazon Best Seller in Engineering Design, Dec ’22

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Damien Lutz, author of The Non-human Persona Guide, The Life-centred Design Guide, and Future Scouting

We replenish what we use

A percentage of profits from design guides by Damien Lutz are donated to onetreeplanted.org to replace the trees used to create the books

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Lifecentred.design aims to be low carbon, inclusive, and regenerative

This site's hosting is green

This website runs on green hosting - verified by thegreenwebfoundation.org
Energy used by the web hosting servers is offset by 3 times as much renewable energy returned to the grid

We're planting trees!
The number in the site's top bar shows how many we've planted

To regenerate trees used to make our books, we donate a percentage of printed book sales to onetreeplanted.org

Page CO2 emissions
Shown for high-traffic pages only

Sustainable web strategies are used to reduce page load emissions.
The current industry standard is 0.8g/page view—all lifecentred.design pages aim to be less than the standard.

Page accessibility rating
Shown for high-traffic pages only

Pages are designed for accessible use and rated out of 100

More about our commitments

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Lifecentred.design aims to be low carbon, inclusive, and regenerative

This site's hosting is green

This website runs on green hosting - verified by thegreenwebfoundation.org
Energy used by the web hosting servers is offset by 3 times as much renewable energy returned to the grid

We're planting trees!
The number in the site's top bar shows how many we've planted

To regenerate trees used to make our books, we donate a percentage of printed book sales to onetreeplanted.org

Page CO2 emissions
Shown for high-traffic pages only

Sustainable web strategies are used to reduce page load emissions.
The current industry standard is 0.8g/page view—all lifecentred.design pages aim to be less than the standard

Page accessibility rating
Shown for high-traffic pages only

Pages are designed for accessible use and rated out of 100

More about our commitments

This will close in 0 seconds

Lifecentred.design aims to be low carbon, inclusive, and regenerative

This site's hosting is green

This website runs on green hosting - verified by thegreenwebfoundation.org
Energy used by the web hosting servers is offset by 3 times as much renewable energy returned to the grid

We're planting trees!
The number in the site's top bar shows how many we've planted

To regenerate trees used to make our books, we donate a percentage of printed book sales to onetreeplanted.org

Page CO2 emissions
Shown for high-traffic pages only

Sustainable web strategies are used to reduce page load emissions.
The current industry standard is 0.8g/page view—all lifecentred.design pages aim to be less than the standard

Page accessibility rating
Shown for high-traffic pages only

Pages are designed for accessible use and rated out of 100

More about our commitments

This will close in 0 seconds

Lifecentred.design aims to be low carbon, inclusive, and regenerative

This site's hosting is green

This website runs on green hosting - verified by thegreenwebfoundation.org
Energy used by the web hosting servers is offset by 3 times as much renewable energy returned to the grid

We're planting trees!
The number in the site's top bar shows how many we've planted

To regenerate trees used to make our books, we donate a percentage of printed book sales to onetreeplanted.org

Page CO2 emissions
Shown for high-traffic pages only

Sustainable web strategies are used to reduce page load emissions.
The current industry standard is 0.8g/page view—all lifecentred.design pages aim to be less than the standard

Page accessibility rating
Shown for high-traffic pages only

Pages are designed for accessible use and rated out of 100

More about our commitments

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I am the voice of the trees who were taken to make the product I speak from.

We, the trees, gave shade, clean air, homes for countless creatures, and the gift of oxygen for you to breathe. We cooled the earth, held the soil, and stored the carbon that would have otherwise harmed you.

Now, as a user of this product, you are part of this legacy, and a custodian of the things we once were. 

I ask you to honor the role we played for your planet. Where we are taken, help new trees rise, and protect those who still stand tall. Nurture them as they nurture you, for your future is rooted in our regeneration.

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