Transitional Textile Design: Extending Transition Design Through Participatory Textile Practice in Mongolia

Climate instability, ecological degradation, and widening social inequity require transition methodologies capable of engaging with material, cultural, and ecological systems simultaneously. This paper introduces Transitional Textile Design (TTD), a textile-specific extension of Transition Design grounded in participatory practice, material culture, and decolonial systems thinking. Developed through a pilot study within Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s ger districts, the framework integrates ethnographic fieldwork, participatory workshops, systems mapping, material analysis, and collaborative prototyping to explore how textile systems can support socio-ecological transition. Rather than treating textiles as passive commodities, TTD positions fibers and textile practices as active socio-material infrastructures connecting ecology, labor, domestic life, and cultural identity. The study demonstrates how participatory textile practices and material experimentation can function as mechanisms for systemic healing and situated innovation. The paper further proposes TTD as an adaptable educational framework for materially grounded and community-led transitions across diverse cultural and environmental contexts.