We are a humble systemic design studio.
We're more focused on asking the right question than having the right answer. We don't start by pre-determining what a solution should look like. We focus instead on the inquiry: the nature of the questions we ask, and how they frame a systemic issue from multiple perspectives. That is what a humble posture means in this kind of work.
It is better to do the right thing wrong than the wrong thing right.
We practise systemic design.
Systems thinking is a family of approaches, each developed in a different tradition and each useful in different situations. Systemic design is what lets us draw on all of them: it integrates systems thinking with design methods, so instead of committing to one school we take up whichever approach the situation calls for.
In practice, that means building custom tools and tactics for each engagement, made to reveal the social and cultural dynamics that ecosystem strategies need to work with.
Contexture is the first studio in Saudi Arabia to offer systemic design services — and we are growing the practice here, in this context, with the people building it.
Trained in systems science, practised in design.
Zaid has over 15 years of experience developing organisational strategies in transit, energy, finance, auto, and more. Zaid specialises in designing custom approaches that are suited to the particular challenges leadership teams face. Zaid advances systems thinking through research, lectures, and community hosting.
- Systemic Design Association (SDA) — member
- Relating Systems Thinking & Design (RSD) symposium — presenter
- Intro to Systems Thinking for Engineers — instructor
- Systems Thinking Ontario — host and co-organiser
- Creative Systemic Research Platform (CSRP) — member
- International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) — board member
Samah Kamalmaz is a strategic designer and researcher working at the intersection of people, places, and systems. She consults on strategic design, drawing on 15 years of experience across architecture, technology, and social innovation. Alongside her practice, she lectures, facilitates workshops, and publishes on regenerative technology in urban planning.
- Systemic Design Association (SDA) — member
- Relating Systems Thinking & Design (RSD) symposium — presenter
- Intro to Systems Thinking for Agriculture Technologists — instructor
- International Conference on Sustainability Developments and Innovations — presenter & co-author
- Creative Systemic Research Platform (CSRP) — member
15 years of strategy and design experience across a wide range of sectors.
We built our practice in Canada, applying systems thinking, design, and strategic foresight with transit authorities, pension funds, universities, and research institutions. We are now bringing that experience to Saudi Arabia.
Talks, workshops, and university exchanges with the institutions building the capacity to work with ecosystems.
A systems thinking practice that grows and belongs to the region.
We are just getting started, and we want to be open about the bigger ambition: a practice that takes its own shape in the region. We want to see this region as a new centre for systems thinking, where it's taught, adapted, and redeveloped locally. These are the five things we think that takes.
Education
Recurring courses and training programmes, and in time a systemic design programme taught inside Saudi universities, built with partner faculties and research labs.
Community
A Saudi systems learning community with a rhythm of its own: outings, meetups, reading groups, and eventually conferences that bring the global field to the region.
Practice
More local consultancies, innovators, strategists, and ecosystem leaders using systems approaches in the work they already do, so it becomes better known and sought after in RFPs and project work.
Scholarship
A Saudi approach to systems thinking, developed in the open and published as we learn it, with visiting scholars hosted here so the field is studied from this region and not only imported into it.
The Gulf
A closer exchange with our neighbours and their use of systems thinking. Each nation in the region is working out its own relationship to these ideas, and all of us benefit when those learnings are shared.
Some of this begins in 2026; the rest is a decade of work. If any of it is work you want to do too, we would like to hear from you.
Let's get to know each other.
Now that you know a bit more about us, we'd love to meet you. Book a free introductory call for a relaxed conversation about what you're working on.
Say hello →