The contribution of future studies and computer modelling behind the debate on sustainable design: the role of the report on The Limits to Growth

The article investigates the relationship between sustainability and design in a historical perspective. It clarifies the role played, mainly in the sixties, by the so-called “futurists”. The “need for rationality” of the design process seems to have many philosophical elements in common with Operations Research and other scientific approaches of that period. The systems dynamics methodology, based on cybernetic principles, was applied to develop The Limits to Growth report (1972). At that time the report had a major impact, even if a most of the established economic community criticized the lack of certain data and scientific theories. Today it is considered a milestone study in the history of environmentalism.