The New European Bauhaus: The ‘Simplexity’ of Innovation in Design

European initiatives, such as the New European Bauhaus, foster collaboration across diverse sectors, artistic experimentation and new materials, creating a movement that inspires and guides the transition to a fairer and resilient future for the Next Generation. In this regard, design needs to experiment with a cultural and interdisciplinary implementation of approaches for serving as a bridge between disciplines and between technology and sustainability, ensuring that ethical and sustainable principles guide digital and scientific innovation. The paper presents "Biovision of the future", an educational and research experience conducted at the Saperi&Co research and service centre of Sapienza University of Rome on the issues of Bio Revolution and aimed to experiment with new hybrid processes and methodologies as fertile ground for converging different knowledge and perspectives on complex issues and to foster a more critical and strategic design culture regarding using advanced (bio)technologies. These methodologies, accomplished during a workshop phase and built on a strong interaction and hybridisation between the design methodologies (inductive-experiential-synthetical) and the scientific, sociological and psychological methodologies (deductive-logical-analytical), use visual tools to stimulate interdisciplinarity, critical thinking and strategic reflection during participatory dialogues and co-design activities. The results materialised in six design concepts as forward-looking strategies and solutions (products, processes, services, systems) to "rebuild" the lost links between humans and nature, technology and ecology, fostering Biorevolution from an ethical perspective. They prove the importance of employing systemic and lateral thinking, proactive and future-oriented approaches capable of managing a wide range of information, enabling the planning of actions, and making informed decisions. In this sense, implementing visual methods in design processes becomes central and proactive, materialising complex meanings in 'signs' and using a simple and universal language suitable for organising non-linear processes and 'simplexity'.