The Architectural Review - 09.2019

Do we need to
radically • rethink our
economic structures~

The fundamental question in economics is 'what

is the purpose of the economy?' If we don't know

what the purpose of the economy is then we don't

know what progress looks like; we don't even know what metrics we

should be using. To frame the purpose of the economy, I dre'v a little

picture - it comes out looking a bit like a doughnut, crazy as it sounds.

The purpose is to meet the needs of all people, within the means

of this incredible, delicately balanced living planet.

With that as
a starting point,
what can we keep
and what needs
to chan_g:c?.

vVe need to make a lot of changes because we have

inherited economies from the 20th century that

are degenerative by design. Our industries are

structured in a linear way. vVe talre materials from

the Earth, we make them into stuff we want, we use it for a while

often only once and then we throw it away. And that Talce-Make-

Use-Lose structure cuts against the cycles of the living \Vorld. The

cost of this throwaway industrial process is e}..'-ternalised from the

business model and spewed out onto the Earth. " re need to transform

from a linear degenerative model to a circular regenerative model,

where there's no such thing as throwing things away: there's

no 'away', and there's no such thing as waste the waste from

one process becomes food for another. "'\Ve need an economy that

regenerates \vith and \vithin the cycles of the living world. I'm not

even talking about economic instruments at this point, I'm talking

about the fundamental re-conception of the production systems we

use to 1neet our wants and needs, within the means of the planet.

What shU'ts in
thinking arc you
suggesting and how
might ihey be
implemented?

The 21st-century economy has become fixated on

growth - that's what we hear our politicians talk

about. Gro·wth, as if that is the purpose and the

object of our economy- 'it's growing!' Instead,

we need to realise that that economy exists within society, within

the living world. We need to protect the Earth's systems in order

to thrive. We need to r evisit \vho we think we are. Last century's

economics told us we're homo economicus or 'rational economic man';

that we are self-interested, calculating, always looking to get the best

deal and make the most money. That is just such a narrow view of

who we are and the dangerous thing about it is that the more students

learn about it, the more they start to mimic it. I think most people

aren't money seeking; they're purpose seeking. Just as much as we

can be self-interested and competitive, we can also be collaborative.

We are deeply social animals and \Ve need to tap into that much wider

understanding of who we are.

We also need to realise that the economy is complex. The original

creators of economics made it a static analysis, jumping from one

moment in time to another, but actually the economy is more like