TOWARDS LIFE-CENTRED CLIMATE PRACTICE
Join us this DesignTO 2027
Climate and ecological challenges invite us to rethink not only what we make, but how we work, who we work with, and what kinds of knowledge we value. Nature demonstrates that sustainable systems are possible.
Working towards life-centred futures is a process of collective learning, bringing different disciplines, forms of knowledge, and human and more-than-human perspectives into relation. By recognising nature as an active part of this exchange, we can explore new ways of understanding, working and living together that support more regenerative futures.
Climate practice is inherently collaborative. Addressing ecological change requires more than any single discipline can offer. It asks us to work across different ways of seeing, knowing and acting, and to explore what becomes possible when differences meet. Collaboration is not simply about bringing different perspectives together. It requires us to navigate collectively and consider how our practices might influence and transform one another.
Working towards life-centred futures calls for a regenerative practice that connects scientific knowledge of ecological change, design approaches to imagining alternatives, and diverse forms of local, cultural and ecological knowledge. Each offers different ways of understanding and responding to ecological challenges. How these forms of knowledge meet and inform one another is often an open question. *
What happens when the methods and interventions of one practice encounter those of another?
What can we learn, challenge or make possible together that we could not achieve alone?
How might our practices change when we recognise ourselves as part of the living systems we seek to care for and transform?
The Drift is a space for dialogue across disciplines and places, connecting an international network that extends beyond the physical spaces of the DesignTO Festival. Bringing together voices from diverse fields, we ask; what can we learn by working with the living world?
Join the conversation to explore what we bring to climate practice, what we can learn from one another and the living world, and what new capacities and possibilities might emerge when we work together towards more regenerative futures.
This drift is hosted by
Jessica Riquetti (CAN)
Judith van den Boom (UK)
and in collaboration with Ranee Lee (CAN)
Other speakers to be announced!
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This event is part of DesignTO Festival 2027
DesignTO is a charitable arts organization that believes design can create a sustainable, just, and joyful world. DesignTO organizes the annual DesignTO Festival. It is Canada’s largest celebration of design, forming Toronto’s design week January 22-31, 2027.
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Jessica Riquetti, based in Canada is a regenerative designer, ecologist and educator who bridges biology and design to help others navigate a transforming world. Drawing on her PhD studies in plant ecology at UC Berkeley alongside decades of experience leading design innovation at global brands including Lululemon and Arc’teryx, she cultivates ecological literacy and gives others the agency to design regeneratively. Her approach is experiential and immersive, shaped by years of developing curricula and leading workshops for designers, biologists, corporate teams and curious learners. Her teaching spans diverse settings, from guiding undergraduate field research at UC Berkeley, to developing project-centred design courses for Master's students at Central Saint Martins, building elementary school garden ecology programmes, and training corporate teams in circular design.
Judith van den Boom, based in the UK and is a designer, researcher and educator working at the intersection of design, ecology and living systems in the UK. With PhD research developing regenerative ecocentric design methodologies, she leads the MA Regenerative Design at Central Saint Martins, UAL in London and developing situated and participatory approaches that bring design into dialogue with ecological sciences, communities and place. She developed projects, research and educational initiatives across the UK, Europe and Canada, working with communities, designers and scientists to explore more-than-human, participatory and place-based approaches to climate and ecological challenges. She supports postgraduate students and regenerative practitioners internationally in developing situated, interdisciplinary practices and futures-oriented methodologies.
Ranee Lee is based in Canada, a product designer, educator, and internationally recognised thought leader whose work advances the intersection of circular design, participatory methodologies, and care-centered practices. She is an Associate Professor of Industrial Design at OCAD University and is the Founder and Executive Director of DESIGNwith, an award-winning community design incubator uniquely situated within CF Toronto Eaton Centre. In partnership with Cadillac Fairview and OCAD University, conceived as a public-facing “living lab,” DESIGNwith represents a pioneering model that bridges academia, industry, and community engagement. Across her work, Lee continues to position design as a critical tool for advancing equity, sustainability, and systemic transformation at local and global scales.
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This Drift is supported by
OCAD University, Toronto, CAN
UAL, University of the Arts London, UK