Feature 15 April 2026

RDI Spotlight

In an age full of climate, biodiversity and wellbeing challenges, design has an increasingly important role to play in reconnecting people with nature and purpose

Johanna Gibbons, an older woman in a coat and orange scarf stands outdoors, looking thoughtful, as if inspired by the dinosaur skeleton and trees behind her on a sunny day.

Johanna Gibbons, RDI, FRSA

Founding Partner of J&L Gibbons

reading time: Two mins

Arts and society Design Environment Fellowship Sustainability

Summary

Johanna Gibbons, RDI, FRSA introduces this new regular feature, reflecting on her appointment as Keeper of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry. Advocating for an ‘eco-centric’ approach, Gibbons calls for design that restores natural systems and strengthens community connections to the environment. Gibbons emphasises the collective influence of the RDIs and RSA Fellowship as a network capable of shaping a more regenerative future.

It is a great honour to be elected Keeper of the Royal Designers for Industry (RDIs), a faculty embracing an extraordinary group of wide-ranging and world-renowned designers, all nestled under the canopy of the RSA, with a 90-year history of shaping culture and society through design.

Each year the RSA awards the RDI title to designers of all disciplines determined to have achieved “sustained design excellence, work of aesthetic value and significant benefit to society”; it is the highest accolade for designers in the UK, only 200 of whom may hold the title at any given time. As RDIs, we give back to the RSA in many ways, sharing skills and experience across the Society and supporting design education through the RSA Student Design Awards.

The RDIs also have a long history of contributing to RSA Journal. Most recently, we welcomed five new RDIs and two new honorary RDIs (a designation reserved for non-UK designers) with a set of profiles in the pages of the Journal’s December 2025 edition. And I’m very happy, in this first edition of 2026, the year in which we will celebrate our 90th anniversary, to have been asked in my role as Keeper to contribute the inaugural ‘RDI Spotlight’, a new feature profiling the life and work of one RDI per edition, thus further celebrating the enduring bond between Faculty and Fellowship.

An ingrained philosophy

In 1754, the RSA’s very first initiative was to incentivise landowners to plant 60 million trees. As the first landscape architect to become Keeper – and only the fifth woman in this role following Betty Jackson, Dinah Casson, Jean Muir and Lucienne Day – nearly three centuries later, the mission feels more urgent than ever.

Landscape architecture isn’t simply what I do, it’s who I am. A way of life rooted in a philosophy of deep ecology that drives me and the work of my practice; design underpinned by the natural dynamics of nature, bridging the arts, sciences and humanities. It is a profession with the ability to help reverse climate change, create resilient places for all life to flourish and reflect the needs and aspirations of communities so they feel they belong and can thrive equitably.

Nature is not some satellite consideration to the global economy that we patronise in dreamy moments… it is the mothership

Now in the triple lock of climate, biodiversity and mental health crises, I feel a complex yearning and responsibility to creatively operate in an eco-centric rather than ego-centric way. Pragmatically, it means a total approach to design and to habitat creation for humanity and our coexistence with all forms of life. We refer to this as ‘Design with Nature’, emulating, enhancing and restoring the natural systems on which society depends.

The centre piece

We are reconnecting with nature through design, to reignite an entanglement with the living world. The cumulative impact is a profound sense of wellbeing at the heart of the places we gather, nurture and love; places that connect us to one another, and remind us of the beauty of life.

Nature is not some satellite consideration to the global economy that we patronise in dreamy moments… it is the mothership. And we must encompass design through community engagement and strategic planning, urban forestry, nature recovery and sustainable water management, in a way that makes environmental, social and economic sense.

This pathway lies deep within our psyche and is fundamentally regenerative. As a landscape architect, it’s an approach to natural assets that rejects extraction in favour of balance, recognising nature’s equal right to exist and regenerate.

The bond

There is no place for apathy. True progress lies in a commitment to net zero, to craft, resource management and nature-based innovation, where the cumulative impact of many modest, meaningful actions builds exponential momentum. A quiet revolution that must now find its voice, inviting everyone to join and to help build confidence in a different path forward. In this, I visualise the Royal Designers as a magnificent ecological network, a living entanglement which, together with the RSA Fellowship, is a profoundly influential force for good. A creative collective capable of embracing the complex, nuanced and life-defining challenges of our time.

Johanna Gibbons with blonde hair wearing an olive green shirt looks ahead while talking outdoors, surrounded by blurred people and greenery. The scene is framed in light green.

Colorful collage of diverse faces on the left with the text "Become a Fellow Today" in bold, followed by information about events, webinars, research, insights, and a physical journal being delivered.

Johanna Gibbons, RDI, FRSA is Founding Partner of landscape architecture firm J&L Gibbons. She was honoured as a Royal Designer for Industry in 2019 and appointed as Keeper (a role formerly known as Master) of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry in 2025.

Knowledge grows when shared.

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