META DESIGN

In LDA, we use MetaDesign to reshape our own creation process, so we are constantly renewing ourselves. We understand the importance of this practice as an important facilitation tool that analyzes how emerging results from different project processes and scopes can serve as a catalyst for new, often disruptive approaches.

MetaDesign is a cohesive and accessible set of understanding and action tools applied to deal with complex systems in any field, whether in urban environments, user-centered design processes, innovation processes and ecosystems, community strengthening, or creating governance systems.

Instead of thinking about how to build a district, a mall, a building, or even a house, we focus on the why, that is, what will be done for the direct or indirect users of these typologies. We question the very nature of space and reality where one lives.
One way to understand reality is as a habit, from brushing our teeth to applying methods for work, including a certain way of relating socially and building value in the culture we inhabit.

This habit creates the reality we live in because we come to believe that the environment, we create with our daily actions, is the very world of “world creation.” This is the fundamental act of creating what we call reality.

These mental models are constructed by us based on learning habits and routines of action from our world – whether by imitation, when we look at our parents, relatives, and friends; or by autonomous creation, when we need to “figure things out” in any new situation.

MetaDesign is the ability to design and think about how we will design something.

It is one of the forms of design thinking where we ask the right questions to arrive at innovative solutions.
To do this, we step back from the final product we want to develop and reflect on the creation path of that product, thinking and discussing the methodological process.

We apply the MetaDesign technique to create methods with a focus on the methodological process.

MetaDesign is the design of things that are in motion and not of static things. Therefore, we are more concerned with the design of processes than the design of objects.

MetaDesign is the design of ourselves, meaning where we are in the world, our reach, what we can do from our position, the position we occupy in the world.

It’s about being aware of ourselves, the context we’re in, and which actions are within our reach. This extends to the social group we’re part of.
So, what social group are we in?
What is the scope of this social group?
Is it a company?
A community?
A family?
An institution?
A public organization?
Profitable? Non-profitable?
Understanding this context is MetaDesign.

MetaDesign allows us to effectively build by intentionally acting within complexity, helping us map it, making it visible and understandable. This allows us to weave the relationships that are in the environment and, at the same time, in our consciousness, in our cognition. Then we can act in this collaborative construction of complexity itself and building is already acting upon it, in a more intentional way of the process, more present.
We realize that all action is creative and not contemplative. Thus, we’re already acting in the world just by being present.

The application of MetaDesign and Complexity Theory in everyday projects allows for more effective and efficient results, where we can do more with less effort, and therefore with less work and, surprisingly, accomplishing more.

We can understand MetaDesign as a toolbox to create new tools, a collection of methods to create new methods. Or, still, small realities that, when inhabited, allow us to create new realities. Every object, every process is part of a larger system.

So, to map complexity, we question the context in which the project is in, and, with MetaDesign, we’ll map that context so that many of the solutions to today’s complex problems can be addressed more efficiently.