From Ecodesign to Nature-Centered Design Education

A new design area bonded with new aims and principles is emerging, and multiple design terms try to identify it: Ecodesign, Biomimicry, Biodesign, and Nature-Centered Design. This article expands their concept and actions to all aspects of life, rejecting practices that limit the design scope to creating consumer goods and artifacts. At the end of the Anthropocene era, we need to create an expanded vision of design theory and practice, one that channels its capacity for creating worlds into ways of being and doing intensely in tune with justice and the Earth. Therefore, we propose to understand nonhuman expertise better. It is a reaction to the established paradigm while acknowledging the responsibility of design and education to compromise the planet’s future. We present the analyses of various theories that aim for change, transformation, or innovation, the ones that tread unconventional territories where humans understand and learn from and with Nature. We conclude with Freire’s cultural circles, amplifying them based on the context of the natural world and the demands of those involved—Humanity and other Living Systems. Humans are Nature, and we must ensure a future where all forms of life can thrive together.