Shifting from extraction to regeneration, from separation to synergy, and from human-centered design to life-centered design
I'm excited to introduce the Biomimicry for Regenerative Design (BiRD) Lab at Green School Bali — an innovative learning space designed to inspire change-makers of all ages to find regenerative solutions by emulating the wisdom of nature.
As one of the architects for this groundbreaking project (along with the ever amazing ever living IBUKU Studio), I've had the privilege of participating in a design process that embodies a fundamental paradigm shift — one that moves beyond sustainability towards true regeneration by inviting many agencies into the design process, including nature ((more on this to come).
At BiRD, learners explore biomimicry not as a way of extracting nature’s solutions for instrumentalisation within unsustainable systems, but as a way of seeing, thinking, and acting differently — as nature, rather than separate from it — something fundamental to systems change. It’s not painting shark-skin paint on the underside of shipping vessels to make their journeys use 3% less fuel while they transport fossil fuels around the world. It’s about sensing the systemic problems with business-as-usual, seeking nature’s solutions, prototyping them for real, and storytelling to communicate the regenerative impact these solutions could have for communities and nature.
The BiRD Labs gives students resources to ideate and create products, processes and places that create the conditions for all life to flourish, locally and globally. The BiRD Lab is more than a building — it is a place to rethink governance structures by observing ecosystems, seek scalable models for replacing toxic colouring with natural dyes, prototype natural packaging that replaces plastics and nourishes the soil, shape new building products using the immense amount of wasted agricultural fibres globally, or reimagine our relationship with abundance and wellbeing by learning from nature's elegant, time-tested strategies.BiRD embodies Green School's commitment to regenerative learning, encouraging us to ask critical questions (which admittedly have been challenging questions to design from!):
🌱 What are the true costs—social, ecological, and generational—of our design choices?
🌱 How might we co-create conditions where all life thrives, not merely survives?
🌱 Can our communities flourish by thinking, feeling, and designing as nature does?The BiRD Lab invites us to shift from compartmentalized, disciplinary thinking toward integrated, life-centered living systems.