System shifts

1. Value Creation and Creativity: Form Follows Availability
   We have changed the way we think about value creation. In the old days, ideas were the starting point, and execution a matter of ambition. Now, in the circular era,the means of execution is the starting point, around which we form the idea. Success means making creative use of limited material resources; our sense of value is guided both by what we create, and what we harm in the process.
   Designing the built environment is intimately linked to designing ourselves, a process in which we ask: what is it that we truly want?

2. Resources and Incentives: The Vintage Economy
   In the circular economy, we view material extraction as a disturbance to the natural balance – something to be avoided at all costs. With a sharp reduction in the supply of newly-produced resources, the materials themselves are more valuable, and we have learned to make far better use of what we already have. Companies compete for pre-existing resources, focusing on collecting and refining them. Those who control material availability hold a key role in transforming our societies. Buildings are no longer merely investments in their direct function, but also strategic investments in material resources.

3. People and Culture: Self-Healing Connection
   Regenerative leadership is naturally embodied by all who view societal development as a continuous stewardship of various ecosystems, expressing across processes, nature, and culture.
   We used to think in terms of goals, of orienting ourselves towards a future; now, we prioritize working within material constraints, and on fostering personal capacity in the present. This shift means our work is less about fixed deliverables, and more about enabling caring actions that are adaptive and grounded in current realities. People become active co-creators of solutions that integrate with the ways we live and interact. By nurturing relationships and unlocking the potential in both individuals and ecosystems, we create vibrant, self-healing, and sustainable communities.

4. Landscape and Resilience: Re-naturalization
   Biodiverse ecosystems are the foundation upon which our societies stand. Today we see land as a loan, which we strive to use efficiently before returning it to nature. Planned rewilding has created a regenerative environment that stores more CO2 than it releases. We have integrated nature’s vitality into our human environments, both for our health and to counteract the effects of the Anthropocene climate. Biotopes harmonize with architecture and infrastructure. The urban landscape is more self-maintaining, and supports the supply of social, cultural, economic, and material needs. Living environments become ecosystems in which people, the “internet of nature,” and the built environment are all interdependent actors in nature’s cycles.

Roles

Urban Programmer¹
As construction slows down and we demand better use of shared resources, a building’s function can’t be tied to its physical form, or to a fixed city plan. You bridge social priorities and physical structures, revitalizing the city without relying on new construction. You plan and coordinate ever-shifting activities in order to make the most of social, cultural, and physical resources. By analyzing local needs and creating synergies, you develop flexible, multifunctional environments. In your role as a link between social needs and the city’s physical structures, you enable a continuous revitalization of the built environment. You represent a shift from planning cities through new construction to developing them within what already exists.

Development Librarian²
You are the city’s librarian for building materials, and a key player in the vintage economy. By mapping and cataloging the city’s materials, you create a database to streamline reuse and reduce the need for new production. As an expert on the physical, economic, cultural, and historical properties of materials, you provide guidance on how they can be managed and cared for in new contexts. Your curatorial role bridges technical resources and cultural values. You are also a communicator, a mediator between a material’s past and its future, embodying the vision of “form follows availability” by transforming waste into resources.

Construction Incubator³
You facilitate citizens to create their own building projects. You provide tools, resources, and support to realize ideas in collaboration with others who share the same vision. When projects are driven by their users, they adapt to the unique conditions of the place, both material and social. This is crucial for promoting a systemic shift toward the principle “form follows availability.” By developing tailored projects with active participation from end-users, risks in the industry are reduced, thereby lowering the need for high profit margins to cover them. You unite creative engineers with experts in transformation and reuse, with your material databases, and with long-term investors committed to sustainable projects. You provide a platform for innovative solutions and a sustainable construction sector.

Network Architect⁴
Relationships are the foundation of a city; to you, they are as ends in themselves, and your work is to forge connections that link generations and social actors. With a cross-sectoral presence, internal interdisciplinarity, and multiple professional titles, you enable cooperation, financing, and continuous processes, especially where the circular economy is implemented. Your broad experience gives you genuine empathy for the whole society. You stand in opposition to competition, conventionality, trends, temporary projects, and strong brands. With a subtle and supportive leadership style, you strengthen psychological sustainability and cultural community. By integrating care, long-term thinking, and generosity into systems and processes, you lay the groundwork for an inclusive and sustainable future.

Bioconductor⁵
You are a strategic change leader who proactively improves living biological systems in the built environment. In collaboration with ecocide lawyers, environmental officers, and property developers, you evaluate and coordinate biological solutions to meet society’s spatial and infrastructural needs. With expertise in Anthropocene ecosystem design and law, you work long-term and across large geographic areas, using the city’s biotope as a framework, and nature’s growth potential as your timeline. When ecosystems are out of balance, you guide their recovery, reshaping the roles of humanity and digitization in biotopes, and return abandoned land to nature.

Method

These conclusions draw on previous experience and research which were further developed for this project through a series of role-playing sessions, in which stakeholders simulated how they would act to achieve a circular, sustainable future. Through verbal arguments and random events, we observed their reactions and motivations in various scenarios.

We also conducted in-depth interviews with industry actors to understand their perspectives and identify new questions. With these insights, we developed and tested prototype roles, iterating them in dialogue with both Media Evolution, Smart Built Environment and our advisors.

Team

Team Now is the New Tomorrow is a multidisciplinary team with broad experience in urban development, urban planning, construction and architecture consisting of Erik Larsen, Teres Arvidsson, Gustav Magnusson and Johan Pitura.

External advisors

Climate psychologist Frida Hylander Urban development strategist Lia Ghilardi.

Images

Gustav Magnusson

Image process

These images emerged from a dialogue between human creativity and AI efficiency. Images of future professional roles based on specific scenarios were produced using a generative model, before being assembled into Photoshop collages, traced by hand, and refined to avoid AI clichés. After feedback, the images were further developed and polished into their final form.