The Kvarken Archipelago and the High Coast of Sweden have a rapidly co-evolving landscape, rich in biodiversity. The observable dynamic conditions of the site are conducive in seeing nature’s solutions as source of inspiration for innovative design. Our proposal for this ideas competition, the Center for Bio-Inspired Design (C.BID), consolidates education and recreation as an inclusive model. C.BID hosts an interdisciplinary group of participants: designers, visitors, biologists, anthropologists, economists, and engineers, among others. In combining their skills, they observe, analyze and draw inspiration from local natural habitats aiming to collectively design innovative and more ecologically integrated environments. The citizens/visitors will thus play an active role in the process, leading to a participatory design practice that includes those who are the primary beneficiaries of the process.

C.BID is a structure that celebrates nature through its educational and recreational programming. Immersed in nature, C.BID is remotely connected to an Urban Nomadic Pod (U/NP) where the team’s accomplishments and data collection performed in the wild is available for public viewing and additional design focused think tank activities.

The Urban Nomadic Pod (U/NP), a lightweight, inflatable structure, remotely connected to the Center for Bio-Inspired Design (C.BID), travels between different Nordic cities, serving as a beacon to raise awareness and connect the HUMANMADE and the WILD. Artificially lit from within, it raises public attention. Inside, a large round table hosts a multi-touch table screen and an exhibit of biomes in glass spheres. Beyond encouraging people to visit the High Coast, this immersive environment procures urban visitors to experience wilderness from a safe haven, and engage with the creative bio-inspired processes centered on nature as source of inspiration for innovation.

Credits: design principal: i.mazzoleni | project team: l.dompé, r.molina, j.sanpedro