Design with living organisms. Alternative perspectives for regenerative ecologies.

Climate change and natural disasters are causing globally increasing complex issues that require alternative strategies and approaches to design. Addressing the current ecological crisis generates unconventional perspectives that guide research and lead many designers to work in multidisciplinary spaces and collaboration with experts from the biological and natural sciences.
Today we are experiencing the spread of new design practices and approaches such as Biodesign and Regenerative Design, in which, through the integration of biological knowledge into the design process, new research directions and new perspectives are generated for the creation of hybrid artefacts that merge natural and technical systems.
The research initiated in December 2022, conducted at the deMIT 38th cycle PhD, in associated form between the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” and Iuav University of Venice, aims to critically analyse the intersection of design and biology disciplines. The aim is to investigate how resilient products that respect natural ecosystems and promote ecosystem benefits in urban areas can be developed through the use of living materials.
The research focuses on the development of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and examines how biofabrication processes, mycelium growth on substrates, and the use of algae and plants can be applied to develop regenerative bio-based products. In particular, it investigates the development of responsive products and systems that can adapt to environmental variations and change their properties in response to specific external stimuli.
The research proceeds and plans to proceed following several phases: preliminary analysis, background, study of the state of the art, formulation of the hypothesis, experimentation and observation, and conclusion. The preliminary phase is useful to define the context of intervention, while the background phase focuses on reviewing the existing scientific literature on the topic. To identify the approaches adopted by designers, the collection and analysis of representative case studies will be started.
The research currently envisages defining the scientific framework of Biodesign practices and developing a BioDesign Tool characterised by a multi-level structure. This tool aims to support designers in the use of biofabrication techniques and facilitate the application of living materials for the development of products capable of reacting and adapting to complex situations in changing environments.
The current hypothesis envisages the creation of an open and scalable conceptual system that will make it. Possible to organize and make use of the available information. This is aimed at facilitating designers to recognise the specific characteristics of living materials and to design products capable of contrasting changing environmental conditions.
Following the formulation of the hypotheses, the research involves an experimentation and evaluation phase using workshops and tests. The main objective is to collect data on the application possibilities of the developed model in the design context to formulate conclusions.
These tools could enable designers to acquire skills in the new approach based on cooperation with natural systems and regeneration, overcoming the traditional approach based on the exploitation of resources.