Jack Self

Background

About Jack Self

I work across the creative sector and as a strategist and futurist. We are entering an entirely new economic paradigm driven by the climate crisis, and I love developing new business models, identifying new market opportunities, and future-proofing existing enterprises. I coined the phrase "form follows finance" in 2013 while working as an architect and economist. Meaningful change in the world must begin from within existing economic constraints and opportunities. I am a particular expert in sustainability and the circular economy, housing (design and financial markets) and alternative models of ownership. My clients and collaborators have included the British Council, IKEA, MINI, Landsec, Prada, Virgil Abloh (LVMH), Alyx, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Price Waterhouse Cooper, Junya Watanabe (Comme des Garcons). I have lectured on design, sustainability and contemporary culture at Harvard, Rice, Columbia, Yale, UCLA, ETH Zurich, Edinburgh, the Royal Academy, and elsewhere. I am the author of "Real Estates: Life Without Debt"(2014),"Home Economics: New Models of Domestic Life"(2016),"Mies in London"(2018),"Symbolic Exchange"(2017) and "Kommunen in der Neuen Welt: Utopian Communes in America 1740-1972"(2021). I founded and am Editor-in-Chief of Real Review, where I have interviewed His Holiness Pope Francis, Chelsea Manning, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Marianna Mazucato, Carlo Rovelliand others. I've written variously for The Guardian, Financial Times, BBC and CNN.