Designing with Nature. Ancestrality and Collaboration with the Living in Contemporary Times

In the Anthropocene era, it is essential to establish a collective dialogue on the meaning of design and the new materiality under ecological standings. Coined by Crutzen and Stoermer (2000), the term indicates the geological period where human activities disturb the balance and threaten life on the planet. Inside this context, this article focuses on how the ‘living’ participates in creating objects. The discussion is grounded in examples that draw their reference from organisms linked to particular environmental contexts and territories. This production is based on an awareness of conscious behaviors and the idea of coexistence and universal mixing, where everything is interrelated (Coccia, 2021). The methodology involves transitioning from dialectical to multi-dialectical relationships, moving towards a more complex intratextuality. Two case studies illustrate this approach. One is Cuia Colab from 2022, a project based in the research on cuias, traditional indigenous objects found in the Amazon Forest region. Crafted by women (Carvalho, 2011), cuias are manufactured from the skin of the fruit of the Crescentia cujete tree and since 2015 their process has been acknowledged as a Brazilian immaterial patrimony (Lima, 2015). The other case study presents the objects from Living Jewels 2022, a collection that cocreates with nature, collaborating with lichens and mosses, living beings situated on the margins (Zonca 2023). Both practices demonstrate highly ecological design approaches to objects and enhance the respectful collaboration between humans and plants, offering ideas to reorientate design’s paths. The discussion and conclusion highlight the production of relationships over commodities through design, the necessary collaboration among designers and other-than-human agents on our planet, and the connection of ancestry to the future.