The Living Design: The Soul of Regenerative Design and the Key to an Ecological Transition

Climate change, pollution, overexploitation, and the decline of biodiversity are alarming signals of the current state of our ecosystem. We must rethink our relationship with the built environment and natural systems, generating models aimed at regenerating rather than depleting life support systems and underlying resources. Regenerative design, originating in the United States, provides a framework for catalyzing this ecological transition and readapting biodesign to the urgent state of natural ecosystems. We must reposition scientific and biotechnological advances in relation to the functioning of natural systems, seeking to create a more sustainable future through living design. Living design seeks to increase the vitality of natural systems in a way that allows the planet to meet the needs of current and future generations. This research questions the relationship between scientists and designers in the context of climate change and ecosystem degradation, highlighting the key role of the biologist designer and living materials as an interface for a more sustainable future. In this context, we explore the recent work of Carole Collet, a designer-biologist in speculative biotextiles, entitled “Hybrid Futures,” which addresses these questions. Collet examines alternative synthetic biomaterials for the textiles of the future, presenting synthetic life as the key to this ecological renaissance to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem health.