Commissioned by Earth

In this fifth Co/Lab, Sweco and Dutch Design Foundation join forces around a pressing and radical design question: What if the Earth were our client? The climate crisis, depletion of natural resources, and pressure on ecosystems make it clear that we need a fundamentally different perspective on how we build, design, and live together. Not one rooted in optimising existing systems, but in long-term regenerative thinking — with care for soil, water, air, biodiversity, and future generations.

Sweco – Europe’s largest architecture and engineering consultancy – doesn’t aim to follow, but to lead. In Co/Lab: Commissioned by Earth, the organisation explores how this shift in perspective can be better put into practice, in collaboration with design studio Fillip Studios. Through a series of co-creation sessions, Sweco employees from across disciplines contribute their ideas, questions and expertise. Fillip Studios then translates these insights into an interactive installation to be presented at Dutch Design Week 2025.

The installation serves as a tangible representation of what it means to design on behalf of the Earth. Not as a conclusion, but as a conversation starter, within Sweco, among peers, and with the wider public. It turns an abstract idea into a shared experience, and an invitation to think, and act, differently.