and nature, a complex relationship

Abstract

Over the course of its history, design has never lost sight of nature as a term of comparison, sometimes taking from it, sometimes moving away from it. To investigate the complex relationship between the two terms, design and nature, we cannot ignore the evolution of man and how it has been profoundly influenced by technological innovation, which is the most evident result of science. Tracing an evolutionary line of design thinking, a double trajectory can be registered: on the one hand the tension towards progress and the myth of the machine, on the other hand the idea of a harmonious co-evolution with nature and the need to be reconnected with it. Besides, it is progress that allows mankind to thoroughly investigate natural mechanisms and make them their own. Contemporary design, autonomous but at the same time increasingly interdisciplinary, has got blurred boundaries which intersect with the most advanced fields of biological sciences. This evolution has opened up a whole new field of investigation that multiplies the opportunities of innovation, especially from a sustainability-oriented point of view. Today the dramatic breaking of the balance between man and nature has turned into the concept of permanent emergency, which is now matter of greatest interest for design, a design that attempts to react, mend, adapt to change in an authentically resilient way.

Design for Emergencies

“…Anthropogenic actions are generating cause-effect dynamics that over time tend to accumulate, scale and accelerate beyond the capacity of human control and intervention, weakening territories and creating new and unpredictable emergencies, which propagate in different forms both globally and locally [5].…”

“…After that event, the design world took action to provide security for citizens so that the fear of tall buildings would not turn into a phobia [4] as well as to safeguard human lives. Or, causes of climate change have led to an urgent need to support fire brigades with new equipment in order to assist them in search and rescue operations following more violent floods 5 .…”

“…For Maria A. Sbordone [5], the emergency reflects a short-circuit in the system, i.e. the result of various circumstances "not foreseeable by the dominant modernist logic"; a criticality sedimentation and accumulation that make an area fragile, consequently exposed with the probability that something at some point will "break", generating a events chain that propagate, overwhelming the region, profoundly changing its meaning.…”

“…the result of various circumstances "not foreseeable by the dominant modernist logic"; a criticality sedimentation and accumulation that make an area fragile, consequently exposed with the probability that something at some point will "break", generating a events chain that propagate, overwhelming the region, profoundly changing its meaning. From the "unexpected convergence impact of human activities on ecosystems, testifying to a time never allowed for the sustainable remedial measures implementation" [5], to the widespread social, political, and economic conflicts that have emerged since the turn of the century.…”