This thesis is aimed at exploring the ICSID’s Interdesign programme, which since 1971 has brought together professionals from around the world to confront and find solutions to a local challenge of international importance. This research has predominantly used the ICSID Archives at the University of Brighton Design Archives, which is the organization’s official archive repository. The scope of the research is to enlighten traces of a mentality's shift, from a product and user-centred to a systemic one, which takes into account a more complex vision including the relationships between man, environment, society, culture and economy. As a starting point, it revealed that ICSID operated as a nexus of national and international associations, showing how relationships are the foundation of any project capable of having global impacts.