ISLAND DESIGN LABS
Tukod's Island Design Lab is the first network of culture-driven climate hubs to regenerate traditional ecological knowledge of 18 Indigenous-frontline communities and strengthen climate literacy and design solutions with 1-million Filipino youth. This network is composed of existing and forthcoming neo-vernacular, climate-resilient structures that function both as a co-creative media and craft space and a typhoon mobilization center equipped with solar power and rainwater catchment systems and emergency communication operating channels. Piloted in the coastal communities of Halian and Metro Manila, we wish to expand it into each region in the Philippines. Acting like a nexus of culture and climate communication, these labs serve as anchors for regenerative climate action within local communities, and cross-pollinate with one another for interregional co-creation between our existing partners within the 18 indigenous and frontline communities around our archipelago.
Too often, environmental solutions act as interventions, prioritizing technological innovation over ecological balance, excluding those who know the land and waters best: our Indigenous peoples. The Philippines, one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, contributes less than 0.4% of global carbon emissions, yet bears the brunt of its consequences. As an archipelago shaped by water, we are meant to survive these storms. Thus we must remember how.
Tukod foundation exists to reverse this trend. We believe that the future of climate adaptation lies not in extractive or inventive complex systems, but in our ancestral technologies, those that work already with our landscapes and oceans. Methods not of the past, but blueprints for regenerative futures. Through our Island Design Labs, we collaborate with frontline communities to co-create localized climate curricula and tangible design tools rooted in culture. These Labs are spaces of learning and listening, where youth and elders work together to contextualize climate education, innovate sustainable solutions, and restore intergenerational wisdom.