Heinz von Foerster and environmental practices

Purpose This paper critically reflects on the overlooked contribution of Heinz von Foerster and the Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL) to environmental discourse in design during the 1960s and 1970s. It examines how his co-constructivist approach can help understand the increasingly complex relationship between tools, design practices and environmental crises. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on archival research, published writings and pedagogical experiments associated with von Foerster and the BCL, including exchanges with environmental practitioners, designers and alternative cultural institutions. It traces how ideas about tools developed at the BCL informed environmental practice experiments addressing different forms of environmental disorder and asks how these practices can expand our contemporary understanding of tools. Findings The paper argues that von Foerster’s environmental thinking has renewed relevance amid accelerating environmental disorder and technological development. This thinking foregrounds the co-constructive relationship between science, tools and the design of environmental realities, providing a more nuanced understanding of agency. Through the cases examined, the paper distinguishes between tools that support conviviality, collective agency and self-organisation and those that reinforce colonial forms of environmental management. Originality/value The paper recovers a neglected history connecting cybernetics, environmental thought and design practice. It identifies how von Foerster’s co-constructivist ideas contributed to an alternative history of ecological cybernetics that can inform contemporary debates about convivial tools, design and environmental futures.