ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how metadesign can inform an expanded approach to human-centred design and design thinking in the context of design education. The writing addresses design educators and learners who are seeking to go beyond a user-empathy driven approach, to engage more comprehensively with human-ecological challenges. A relational mapping tool—the tetrahedron—is used to both frame the proposal and invite others to practice mapping dynamic, interactive and transformative design learning scenarios. Insights and reflections are shared from delivering design thinking classes that employ different methods for engaging empathetically with people and other aspects of living systems through the design process. These hint at what a living systems–centred approach to design learning might involve.
