We are
A not-for-profit Design Lab developing strategy and practice to enable low energy, local livelihoods rooted in nature and community.
Our Vision
To catalyse and support the emergence of new material culture born from care of all living (and future) beings.
Our Aims
- Developing new systems, governance & enterprise for agroecological fibre, textiles, clothing, and related materials.
- Provisioning a place-sourced future through natural systems and small supply chains.
What we do
- We pilot and develop projects towards the creation of local, textile related livelihoods using natural materials.
- We use research and practice to develop open-source knowledge commons that can be adapted by communities in different places and contexts.
- We facilitate networks, map activity & methods and write publications in service of our aims.
- We consult for people wishing to create enterprise and livelihoods compatible with defined ecological and social parameters.
Our people
We’re a collective bound by mutual desire to create new systems and ecological ways of being for society.
Zoe Gilbertson
Zoe is a designer and educator working systemically at the intersections of fibre, fashion & farming. She’s held leadership roles in design and education and has extensive project management experience involving enterprise and innovation. Experience in a variety of sectors has enabled Zoe to develop an interdisciplinary, strategic perspective, nurturing valuable connections between projects and people. Her nature-centred, collaborative practice explores the economics, governance and process required to make local, distributive, non-extractive clothing commons.
Kate Rudd
Kate is a multilingual research consultant working at the nexus of inner development and transformational change. She has 10 years’ experience working on innovation, strategy and communications projects for civil society and public sector organisations. She is a mixed-method researcher with expertise in depth interviewing and focus group facilitation. Her mission is to secure a brighter future for people and the planet, by supporting organisations and innovators working to transform food systems, promote climate justice and defend human rights.
Kat Davis
Kat is a consultant, researcher and facilitator on projects focused on systems change and prototyping in response to complex social and environmental challenges. She has 10+ years experience bridging sectors and specialisms across the impact space, has held leadership roles and is skilled at visualising information. Kat is co-founder of Flip Finance, fellow of the Finance Innovation Lab and On Purpose, and originally trained and worked as an architect and urban designer.
Hattie Emerson
Hattie links a deep connection to the natural world with materials in the built environment. With 20 years’ experience working in construction and building operations, she has a whole life cycle perspective of circularity. Hattie drives innovative change at organisational and project level by challenging norms and identifying creative, practical solutions.
Our name
Liflad means ‘course of life’ in Old English. Through time this evolved into livelode, the ‘means of keeping alive’ which in turn became livelihood. There is an urgency to find new ways of living compatible with all living beings. Our mission is make this happen.