The Studio has an interdisciplinary and international focus. It centres on three areas of activity: the development of transformative projects; the creation of events linked to the projects; making available significant writing on design. Its activities are informed by its Mission and the idea of The Sustainment.

The name of the Studio is based on the recognition that we, human beings, all now live on the edge of a disaster wherein environment, social, geopolitical and economic unsustainability will fuse. Thus humanity is in danger of going over this edge. The studio is based in Tasmania, the Island State of Australia with an amazing natural environment with Antarctica as its nearest landfall (which is now the global epicentre of sea-level rises). The notion of 'edge' thus has a special resonance.