Designing Nature in the Anthropocene Era: Crisis as an Opportunity for Interdisciplinary Projects

In such a historical dramatic period for the future of our planet and their inhabitants, the role of design appears increasingly as a transversal device that connects different knowledges. The assumption of this article is the awareness of the transition from the Holocene era to what the scientists call the Anthropocene, a revolutionary new phase of earth history, that has been unleashed by human action with bad prospects for the planet and the mass of humanity. In this article, the debate on the “Human Age” is argued from a geological and cultural point of view, even considering the positions of philosophers and scholars who have questioned the relationship between nature and the artificial and analyzed how human activities have evolved and specialized over the centuries. The overview of multiple positions leads to affirming the necessity and urgency of a radical re-thinking, with research hypotheses aimed at the “naturalization” of artifice in response to the current needs of a simultaneous economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Every material and immaterial concept should deal with the following questions: What can the future of humanity be if a functional nature and biodiversity are not preserved? How can we reduce the human impact on species and ecosystems by minimizing the effects of our economic and social activities on nature? The critique of anthropocentrism should be accompanied by the recognition of Sapiens’s belonging to nature, operating in the name of knowledge: a reconciliation with nature that alienates destructive practices with conscious projects linked to new lifestyles. The interdisciplinary approach aimed at the transversal objective of biodiversity conservation opens up design paths that can offer answers to the current crisis. In particular, the relationship between science and the arts is a research field of great interest that should be pursued in order to create synergies between the scientific knowledge of the mechanisms of nature and the artificial creativity.