Editorial RSD5: Linking systems-thinking and design-thinking in architecture and urban design

The sixth Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium (RSD6 2017) was held at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Norway in October 2017. The central theme of the symposium was “Environment, Economy, Democracy: Flourishing Together”, and called for contributions on democratic participation and policy innovation, sustainable business innovation, flourishing communities, and related systems-thinking-oriented approaches to architecture, settlements and the built environment. A wide range of contributions addressed themes, such as social impact in flourishing and change programs, health and population wellness, ecological design and bioregion development, human-scaled and regional economies, related sociotechnical and technological systems, etc. Yet, while the five earlier symposia did receive a number of papers that were focused on architecture and urban design, RSD6 was the first RSD symposium with a dedicated paper session on architecture and urban design. This special issue of Formakademisk collects together five of the papers that focus on architecture and urban design from a linked systems-thinking and design-thinking perspective. Each article pursues a distinct theme concerning the development of the profession, performance-oriented architecture and urban design, the role of exterior space in rethinking the architectural envelope, and questions of participation and community building. This breadth of themes in the selected articles indicates the increasingly deep impact of systems-thinking in the fields of architecture and urban design