Zooming In and Out

Reshaping Systems and Places Through Thinking Across Scales

How do you make sense of the world? Do you start with a small detail and gradually piece together the bigger picture? Or do you first take a bird’s-eye view, then return to the ground to work out your next steps?

For those with a background in architecture and spatial practice, this constant shift in focus will feel familiar. Our minds are often compelled—or, perhaps more accurately, trained—to move between these two extremes. What does systems thinking mean in this context? At its heart is an ability to move across scales. One moment, we are examining the urban fabric and character of an entire city; the next, we are working through the construction details of a single wall, right down to how its materials meet and its edges are finished.

I think of this continual adjustment between the macro and the micro as a dialogue between close observation and far-reaching vision. In the language of a camera lens, it is simply “zooming in and out.”

Recently, while revisiting the UK Design Council’s Double Diamond model alongside its Systemic Design Framework, I began to see this more clearly: design is not simply about moving through a process. It also involves continually adjusting our focus across scales and relationships.

What fascinates me most about systems thinking goes beyond process. It is the fluid movement between scales. Divergence can invite us to step back, uncover less visible connections, and see the forest rather than only the trees. Convergence helps us bring a tangle of observations into focus, arriving at clearly framed problems and possible responses. It is a dynamic process in which small questions help shape a larger vision, and that larger vision, in turn, guides the refinement of small details.

Divergence and convergence are not exact equivalents of zooming out and zooming in. Yet, working together, they allow us both to expand the boundaries of a problem and to return to specific situations, where we can make choices that lead to action.

This brings us to a common confusion about what it means to work with systems.

Many people take pride in being systematic. They organise their work, establish procedures, and improve the efficiency of individual tasks. They know how to “do things right.” Systems thinking takes this further: it helps us understand the wider picture and identify “the right things to do.”

Yet neither, on its own, necessarily moves beyond improving how we understand problems or organise our work.

Systemic design turns that understanding into deliberate intervention. It does not promise that good things will happen automatically. Instead, it involves collectively creating the conditions that support them over time, while preserving participants’ ability to offer feedback, make adjustments, and change direction.

Systemic design lies at the heart of what I call “empowering placemaking.” I bring the Double Diamond’s rhythm of opening up and narrowing down into the design of places that strengthen people’s capacity to act. The aim is not simply to construct a physical shell, but to design a living, breathing system. We need more than the ability to see the big picture and attend to the details. We need to understand how the two connect—and use that understanding to cultivate an environment that inspires participation and supports people in developing agency.

Initially, I thought the problem was the lack of a usable space. Stepping back, however, I realised that opening the doors was not enough. Participants still lacked the resources and support they needed to initiate activities of their own. Design therefore had to address more than spatial arrangements. It also had to create opportunities for collaborative action, skill development, and access to resources. As participants began proposing their own projects and bringing others into the process, the place gradually became more than a container for activities. It became a foundation for local action.

To move fluently between these scales—and translate systems thinking into systemic design that takes root in practice—is, to me, how a designer can give a place its deepest sense of purpose and life.

This Week’s Recommended Viewing

Theaster Gates

TED2015  | How to revive a neighborhood: with imagination, beauty and art Where does the transformation of a neighborhood begin? For artist Theaster Gates, it starts with the possibilities hidden in what others have left behind. In this talk, he shares how he transformed abandoned buildings on Chicago’s South Side into places for culture and community. Moving from a single building to the wider neighborhood, Gates explores how imagination, beauty, and art can become catalysts for social change.

本週影音推薦

西斯特・蓋茲 (Theaster Gates)

TED2015*| 以想像力、美與藝術，讓街區重獲新生**

他的實踐路徑就是尺度移動：從一只碗，到一棟房子、一個街區、一個文化區，最後思考整座城市。TED 官方的演講紀錄也明確記下這段尺度擴展。Theaster Gates 是一位以陶藝為起點、將創作延伸至空間再生與社群實踐的美國藝術家，也是非營利組織 Rebuild Foundation 的創辦人。他透過藝術、文化活動與閒置建築的再利用，探索如何重新連結地方居民，讓被忽視的街區成為能夠聚集、交流與創造的場所。

| 為兼顧閱讀流暢度與語意傳達，以下中文版本並非英文之逐字翻譯，而是專為中文語境編寫之版本。|

近覷與遠矚：以跨尺度思維重塑系統與場域

你習慣怎麼認識這個世界？是見微知著，從一個小細節慢慢拼湊出全貌；還是習慣先飛到高空綜觀全局，再回頭佈局眼下的每一步？

這種焦距的拉扯，忽遠忽近的綜合考量之間，對擁有建築與空間背景的人來說應該不陌生。腦袋往往被迫，或者說被訓練必須在這兩極之間來回穿梭。什麼叫做「系統性思維」？他本質上是一種「跨尺度」的切換，舉個最乾脆的例子，前一秒還在探討整座城市的都市紋理與風貌，下一秒就必須收束到一堵牆的構體細節與材質收邊。

這種在宏觀與微觀之間不斷調焦的過程，我暫且在這裡就用了比較美妙的修辭稱它為「近覷與遠矚」，那英文就更簡單的用相機鏡頭語言「Zooming in and out 」。

最近重新閱讀英國設計委員會的雙鑽石模型，並將它與系統性設計框架放在一起思考時，我開始更清楚地理解：設計不只是推進一套流程，也是在不同尺度與關係之間持續調整焦點。

「系統性思維」最迷人的獨特性，根本不僅止於流程。而是在於「尺度的流動」。每一次的發散，讓我們退一步看見事物之間隱性的關聯，看見整片森林；每一次的收斂，由大修小，把龐雜的線索收束成精準的痛點與解方。它是由小問題去建構大願景，再由大願景來雕琢小細節的動態過程。發散與收斂，並不完全等同於拉遠與拉近；但兩者交錯進行，讓我們既能拓展問題的邊界，也能回到具體處境，作出可以實踐的選擇。

所以，你能否看透關於「系統」的迷思。

許多人自豪於「做事情有系統」，這頂多是微觀上把事情做對（Do things right），優化了單一任務的效率；再進階一點的人擁有「系統性思維」，他們看懂了全局，知道怎麼找到正確的事情做（Do the right things）。

但，這兩者都還停留在認知與流程的優化。

真正的「系統性設計」，是一種主動出擊的實踐。系統性設計不是保證好的事情自動發生，而是共同建立支持它持續發生的條件，並保留讓參與者回饋、修正與改變方向的能力。

「培力性場域創造」最核心的心法就是系統性設計。我將雙鑽石模型的動態收放，運用在場域的培力設計上。不只是建構一個實體的殼，而是在設計一套「會呼吸的系統」。我們需要的不只是「看大、看小」，而是「看見中間如何連起來」，是打造出一個能讓參與者自然被激發、被賦權的生態圈。 我最初以為，問題在於缺少一個可用的空間。拉遠之後才發現，即使場地開放，參與者仍缺乏發起活動所需的資源與支持。因此，設計不只處理空間配置，也加入共同行動、技能累積與資源使用的安排。當參與者開始能提出自己的計畫，並帶領下一批人加入，場域才逐步從活動容器，轉成支持地方行動的基礎。

能游刃有餘地在極距之間 ，把系統性思維轉化為能落地的系統性設計，這才是設計者能帶給一個場域，最深刻的靈魂。