Interdisciplinarity and Collaboration - A Study Focusing on Experienced Biodesign Practitioners.

Abstract

Biodesign is an emerging area in the design field that addresses ecological concerns by working with or learning from organic processes found in living systems. Therefore, biodesign leans on knowledge acquired from other fields, especially sciences. A direct interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists and designers happens very often in biodesign. This paper describes the findings of interviews exploring how biodesigners collaborate with scientists in their activities. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with ten experienced biodesigners from Europe and South America. After collected, the information of the different interviewees was synthetized and compared, and a thematic analysis was made. The paper identifies and reflects on the designers’ methods to collaboration. It also shows the impact of such partnerships, their relevance to the design field and the specific contribution design brings to science. In addition to the expected impact of science in the design field, the study indicated the influence that designers are achieving inside scientific contexts as co-workers or leaders of biodesign projects.