Abstract
Designing by engaging more-than-human agents such as plants is a complex chal-lenge, as they have long been regarded as "ontologically inferior" resources pri-marily serving human needs. Emerging studies in the field of Plant Neurobiology are now breaking down knowledge barriers, gathering extraordinary data that recognize plant actions and behaviors guided by a distinct form of intelligence. Considering this breakthrough findings, this paper describes a 10-day workshop involving 52 international design students from Politecnico di Milano University that focused on experiencing plants in a former industrial area within the city borders. Through the years, this area has gone from desolation to a vibrant urban forest where plants and other life forms have flourished without human re-striction. With the contribution of botanists and local forest experts, the work-shop was conceived as a journey with the ambition of providing participants with an opportunity to design for plants as active stakeholders.
Keywords
multispecies design; post anthropocene; speculative design; critical plant studies
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1052
Citation
Vergani, F., and Di Liberto, F. (2024) Designing from the plants' perspective. A field case study in urban forest of “La Goccia”, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1052
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Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Designing from the plants' perspective. A field case study in urban forest of “La Goccia”
Designing by engaging more-than-human agents such as plants is a complex chal-lenge, as they have long been regarded as "ontologically inferior" resources pri-marily serving human needs. Emerging studies in the field of Plant Neurobiology are now breaking down knowledge barriers, gathering extraordinary data that recognize plant actions and behaviors guided by a distinct form of intelligence. Considering this breakthrough findings, this paper describes a 10-day workshop involving 52 international design students from Politecnico di Milano University that focused on experiencing plants in a former industrial area within the city borders. Through the years, this area has gone from desolation to a vibrant urban forest where plants and other life forms have flourished without human re-striction. With the contribution of botanists and local forest experts, the work-shop was conceived as a journey with the ambition of providing participants with an opportunity to design for plants as active stakeholders.