Extreme Design: An Editorial on a New Research Framework Within Engineering Design

Extreme design (XD) is a proposed research framework addressing engineering design’s outer edges of complexity and uncertainty. As the scale and urgency of global challenges grow, such as climate change, autonomous systems, and aging populations, so does the need for design approaches that go beyond conventional methods and models. XD offers a way to approach design problems that are dynamic, interdisciplinary, and fundamentally hard to frame but have humanity at their core. This editorial introduces XD as a framework for developing new theories, methods, and tools suited to extreme conditions. It outlines research opportunities in adaptive systems, creative processes, multiscale prototyping, convergent collaboration, and sustainability. A complexity–uncertainty matrix positions XD relative to conventional and emerging design approaches. We aim to open a conversation—not to define XD fully, but to signal its necessity and invite the design research community to explore and shape it. The challenges ahead will not be solved by incremental improvement in how we approach design. They will require something new. We feel XD is a step in that direction.

Duke Scholars

Author Eric Brubaker Engineering Graduate and Professional Programs