Understory

Understory is ongoing action research into how we can support communities of place to adapt to climate collapse.

If communities are the first line of defence in a crisis, then we must build those defences in the face of uncertain futures. We do this by re-connecting ourselves to our collective memories, our more-than-human communities, and each other, in order to imagine alternative futures.

With five years of mapping communities across the UK behind us, Understory is now enabled by the National Lottery Community Fund to spend 4 years re-connecting communities to build joyful, playful and careful worlds.

Understory is a partnership between the Onion Collective and our non-profit sister organisation Parlour.

It grows out of our heritage in maps, games and craft, and Onion Collective’s focus on relationships as the web that binds us together. It is a long term investigation with the highest stakes: can games and ways of mapping complexity move people into imagining alternative futures in the face of collapse?

To read more, go to our Parlour site or the dedicated project website Understory.