Reframing Urban Ecologies

Building on recent developments in plant neurobiology and integrating them with perspectives from design theory, the volume challenges the deeply rooted conception of plants as “passive” or merely ornamental elements, proposing instead that they be understood as active and intentional agents capable of interacting with and influencing designed systems.

Through a dialogue with more-than-human design and multispecies design approaches, the book highlights the importance of recognizing and cultivating interspecies relationships as a fundamental condition for imagining, designing, and shaping urban spaces that are more inclusive, ecologically aware, and capable of accommodating the plurality of life forms that inhabit them.

At the core of this work is the Relational Atlas, a design framework that decentrers the human subject and redefines the space of design as a relational space, where the shared interests of human and non-human agents converge within specific spatial and temporal nodes.

Rooted in the field of Critical Plant Studies, the framework informs participatory design practices that challenge anthropocentric paradigms, highlighting the complex and often ambiguous role of plants within urban ecosystems. In doing so, it provides both conceptual and operational tools for envisioning new forms of urban ecology grounded in interdependence and multispecies coexistence.

Reframing Urban Ecologies is available in Springer Nature's open access catalogue, as part of the serie SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology.