Outside the Skin: systems approaches to society's larger structural issues, takes a whole-systems look into the mechanisms behind the production of the built environment (read currency, power and influence). Organized around systems of Doubt, Indeterminacy and Synchronicity, the messy topics of selfinterest, cooperation and coordination are framed within five rational game-theoretic games developed by social scientist and Nobel Laureate in Economics, Elinor Ostrom. Intent on presenting a novel systems-wide approach to thesis originality, the work aims to be a resource positioning a critical stance in relation to questions of social justice and equity within design research.