Open in app

Sign In

Write

Sign In

Alastair Parvin
Alastair Parvin

2.1K Followers

Home

About

Published in

Open Systems Lab

·Updated May 18

To redesign ownership, we need a map.

Why we’ve created the Atlas of Ownership — an open, shared map of property rights and obligations; and a library of solutions that could reshape the economy. — The future doesn’t look quite like we expected it to. Instead of growing prosperity, health, equality and a green industrial revolution, we are confronted by a cascade of crises: housing crisis, poverty, climate refugees, ageing populations, pandemics, loneliness and depression, economic stagnation, broken markets, failing supply chains, overburdened public services…

Property

12 min read

To redesign ownership, we need a map.
To redesign ownership, we need a map.
Property

12 min read


May 15, 2022

How can we make street votes work?

Two ideas for how communities could give themselves permission to develop. — Tucked into the middle of the much-anticipated Levelling-Up Bill, published this week, was a small but radical idea called ‘street votes’. Contrary to what some sections of the media humorously imagined, ‘street votes’ are not a proposal to allow your neighbours to collectively hold a referendum on whether they like…

Planning

11 min read

How can we make street votes work?
How can we make street votes work?
Planning

11 min read


Jun 6, 2021

If the UK built 1 million homes, what would happen to house prices?

A thought experiment A few years ago, a paper by the Government Office for Science brilliantly described the UK housing debate as one “bedevilled by rival simplifications”. Of no aspect is this more true than the ‘supply and demand’ debate. …

Housing

15 min read

If the UK built 1 million homes, what would happen to house prices?
If the UK built 1 million homes, what would happen to house prices?
Housing

15 min read


Published in

Open Systems Lab

·Jan 6, 2021

We need new operating systems. Whose job is that?

Why Open Systems Lab exists, and what we’re trying to do. — To live at the beginning of 2021 is to live with a constant feeling of powerlessness in the face of huge challenges and weird contradictions. As a society, we have the technology — and the will — to avert climate catastrophe and transition to a zero carbon, zero-waste economy. …

Design

9 min read

We need new operating systems. Whose job is that?
We need new operating systems. Whose job is that?
Design

9 min read


Published in

Open Systems Lab

·Oct 29, 2020

Planning for the Future

A response to the Government’s planning White Paper — In August 2020, the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published a White Paper called ‘Planning for the Future’ which sets out the most ambitious reforms to the planning system in England since the system was first created in 1948. It is a matter of almost universal agreement…

Planning

31 min read

Planning for the Future
Planning for the Future
Planning

31 min read


Published in

Open Systems Lab

·Jun 21, 2020

A New Land Contract

This is a written version of a talk given for Civic Square’s ‘Department of Dreams’ event on Friday 19th June, 2020. I heard a line recently by an American poet called Theodore Roethke, and it has kept coming back to me ever since. “In a dark time, the eye begins…

Housing

22 min read

A New Land Contract
A New Land Contract
Housing

22 min read


Jun 12, 2020

Democracy as a Platform: Learning from Taiwan

Yesterday, Jeremy Till (who I’m proud to say was at one point my university tutor) shared with me a link to this extraordinary interview by Matthew Taylor with Audrey Tang 唐鳳, the digital minister of Taiwan. If you haven’t listened to it, do. It’s utterly fascinating. Tang is next-level…

Covid-19

6 min read

Democracy as a Platform: Learning from Taiwan
Democracy as a Platform: Learning from Taiwan
Covid-19

6 min read


Apr 19, 2020

After the crisis: let’s fix procurement.

In the coming months there will be many conversations about what governments everywhere can learn from COVID-19, and what they can do in future to be better prepared for crises. The list will — I hope — include very wide questions about social resilience, health infrastructure, internet infrastructure, monetary policy…

Politics

16 min read

After the crisis: let’s fix procurement.
After the crisis: let’s fix procurement.
Politics

16 min read


Dec 31, 2019

Progress, Again.

‘A new social contract’ — Part 4 “People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it’s the other way around.” – Terry Pratchett A diagram can be a dangerous thing. The moment we see the world differently, we have a new tool to engage with it differently. And…

Economics

20 min read

Progress, Again.
Progress, Again.
Economics

20 min read


Oct 14, 2019

Democracy as a Platform

‘A New Social Contract’ Part 3 At any given time in history, the leading edge of technology is surrounded by a noisy crowd of startups and salespeople, whose salary essentially relies on giving you the impression that they know something that you don’t. Like a flock of seagulls in the…

Economics

20 min read

Democracy as a Platform
Democracy as a Platform
Economics

20 min read

Alastair Parvin

Alastair Parvin

2.1K Followers

Systems designer. Co-founder Open Systems Lab.

Following
  • Cory Doctorow

    Cory Doctorow

  • Design Council

    Design Council

  • martha lane fox

    martha lane fox

  • Tim Abrahams

    Tim Abrahams

  • Lessig

    Lessig

See all (455)

Help

Status

Writers

Blog

Careers

Privacy

Terms

About

Text to speech

Teams