May 19, 2026
Mutual Flourishing, A Design Handbook
By Matt Jernigan + Rebecca Zaragoza
Designing for Mutual Flourishing is the practice of designing and caring for shared spaces where people and nature thrive by supporting each other. Our 2025-26 Green Futures Lab Interns Matt Jernigan and Rebecca Zaragoza have explored how we can effectively enhance urban habitat conditions that allow both people and more-than-humans to thrive, and how intentional public space planning and design approaches can reciprocally and more powerfully nurture both.
This beautifully illustrated, accessible, in-depth design handbook is based on identified design qualities that contribute to Human Well-Being, Biodiversity and Equity — three design domains that overlap and feed into each other when applied. The purpose of the book is to encourage all those who shape the built environment to work towards Mutual Flourishing in the urban realm so that these qualities can be enjoyed by all.
We are profoundly grateful to the Scan Design Foundation for funding Matt’s and Rebecca’s internships, and hope that you will download the guide and apply the principles of mutual flourishing to your conceiving, designing and stewarding of our shared public spaces.
-Nancy D. Rottle, RLA, FASLA
Download the full handbook here!
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