Conference Agenda

This study explores how design researchers in Europe understand and enact nature-centred biodesign for regeneration: an emerging approach that bridges design, biology, and ecology to foster regenerative futures. It proposes an evolutionary framework of design agency, mapping the transition from imitation to co-evolution and from instrumental ethics to ecological justice. The framework highlights four paradigmatic quadrants: Anthropocentric Planning, Emerging Bioeconomy, Socio-Ecology, and Regenerative Biodesign that capture how ethical, ecological, and material orientations shape practice. In parallel, it employs a qualitative analysis of a questionnaire with 32 researchers from COST Action DESIGNAE (2025), which investigates how design operates between scientific, material, and social domains in biodesign. Findings reveal that while cross-disciplinary collaboration and material experimentation are flourishing, current approaches remain mechanistic, rooted in optimisation, scalability, and urban-technological paradigms. However, emerging translational and participatory practices indicate a gradual shift from design as problem-solving towards design as a mediator of ecological relationships.