Abstract
The design field is increasingly engaging with the challenge of regenerating Earth systems within planetary boundaries, yet the epistemic foundations of regenerative ecological design remain diffuse. This paper introduces Three-Eyed Seeing as a design framework that brings Western empirical methods, Indigenous relational knowledge, and futural imaginaries into accountable dialogue. The framework supports plural ways of knowing without collapsing them into a single worldview and positions designers as mediators across multiple ontological commitments. Drawing on an autoethnographic field encounter with pollinators at Kaʻena Point in Hawaiʻi alongside ecological systems-oriented design research, the study explores how these distinct ways of knowing can be practiced together within regenerative design inquiry. The encounter illustrates how observation, accountability, and futural imagination interact in practice, reframing regeneration as a collaborative process shaped by human and more-than-human partners. Three-Eyed Seeing provides conceptual grounding and methodological orientation for designers seeking to practice ecological regeneration as co-constitutive worldmaking.
Keywords
Three-Eyed Seeing, regenerative ecological design, Indigenous knowledge systems, renewal of social-ecological systems
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1880
Citation
Wetherell, K., Speed, C., and Albareda, L. (2026) Three-Eyed Seeing: A framework for regenerative ecological design, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1880
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Three-Eyed Seeing: A framework for regenerative ecological design
The design field is increasingly engaging with the challenge of regenerating Earth systems within planetary boundaries, yet the epistemic foundations of regenerative ecological design remain diffuse. This paper introduces Three-Eyed Seeing as a design framework that brings Western empirical methods, Indigenous relational knowledge, and futural imaginaries into accountable dialogue. The framework supports plural ways of knowing without collapsing them into a single worldview and positions designers as mediators across multiple ontological commitments. Drawing on an autoethnographic field encounter with pollinators at Kaʻena Point in Hawaiʻi alongside ecological systems-oriented design research, the study explores how these distinct ways of knowing can be practiced together within regenerative design inquiry. The encounter illustrates how observation, accountability, and futural imagination interact in practice, reframing regeneration as a collaborative process shaped by human and more-than-human partners. Three-Eyed Seeing provides conceptual grounding and methodological orientation for designers seeking to practice ecological regeneration as co-constitutive worldmaking.