From design to co-nature’ing: toward a metabolic epistemology of design in the age of human–nature–intelligence ecologies
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Contemporary design operates within conditions of ecological destabilization and distributed technological agency that challenge anthropocentric and instrumental paradigms. While participatory, regenerative and AI-mediated design approaches have expanded disciplinary scope, their integration remains conceptually fragmented. This paper introduces Co-nature’ing as a positioning framework that reconceptualizes design as a metabolic epistemology – a relational mode of knowing and acting across Human–Nature–Intelligence ecologies. Grounded in process philosophy, complexity theory, ecological cognition and autopoietic systems theory, the framework advances a symmetrical triad in which biological systems and algorithmic infrastructures function as co-agents rather than resources or tools. The Co-nature’ing spiral – Co-Sensing, Co-Growing, Co-Evolving and Co-Flourishing – is presented as an operative translation of this epistemological shift. A pedagogical instantiation through the BIP Design Roadmap illustrates how distributed agency can be enacted within studio practice. The paper contributes a unified theoretical foundation for biodesign as cognitive ecology and relational co-evolution.
Source: Biotechnology Design
Institutions: Instituto Superior Manuel Teixeira Gomes, Aalto University
Language: English
Subfield: Building and Construction
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,550
Funders: European Commission, Aalto-Yliopisto
OpenAlex ID: W7171853635
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