Emergent design is an approach that emphasizes building, measuring, and learning from code continuously. It aims to develop code that is simple, changeable, and avoids large refactoring costs later. Design should emerge through preparatory refactoring before changes, continuous refactoring during, and taking a step back after to ensure working code and a cleaner system. Key techniques include addressing code smells, applying SOLID principles, and focusing on simplicity, patterns, and understanding through discussion and documentation away from and in front of the code.