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biodesign Foundation
The BioDesign Foundation is led by its president, Roberto Guerini, who after working as curator from 2006 and then as chief designer of the Colani Design Studio, later took over its leadership upon the death of Luigi Colani in 2013.
The BioDesign Foundation adopts Colani Design’s pragmatic and solution-oriented design philosophy in its mission to restore harmony between man, technology and nature. But what makes Luigi Colani and his philosophy the ideal starting point for the conceptualisation and implementation of those holistic, solution-oriented methodologies for environmental problems that the BioDesign Foundation wants to facilitate? Two points deserve to be considered in this regard.
Firstly, we must reiterate how the essence of design lies in problem solving. Solution-oriented design identifies a challenge, develops solution approaches and implements the most effective one. Following this definition of design, any new product should tackle a challenge previously unsolved. This may be achieved by applying new, innovative ideas, using new materials, or modifying the shape of a product’s predecessors. The most durable solutions can be achieved when a challenge is tackled at the source, rather than downstream. Just like solution-oriented design, addressing environmental challenges requires us to engage with the issues at their roots.
Secondly, due to their influential role in developing and implementing new product concepts, designers play a key role in the definition of aesthetics and practical functions of the human object landscape. The objects that surround us shape our reality. This pivotal role positions designers as crucial gatekeepers for introducing new realities to lead human society towards innovation that harmonises with nature. As a figurehead of environmentally oriented design in 20th century design, always guided by the solutions provided in nature itself, Colani provides a forceful baseline for promoting such values amongst designers and society writ large.
In this context, BioDesign Foundation is committed to researching and realising robust environmental solutions and transforming the world’s problems into challenge, solution, action. To this end, the BioDesign Foundation has devised the Custodians Earth Solution Platform, a citizen science encyclopaedia that provides a much-needed forum, connecting those who perceive the world’s challenges and those who have the knowledge and resources to resolve them.
Building on the Custodians Earth Solution Platform initiative, in 2023 BioDesign Foundation developed a globally unprecedented coordination system that places the mammoth challenge of ridding the entire planet from plastic pollution in nature and the resulting milestone in biodiversity conservation within reach. With the help of The Custodians App, a database for geo-referenced reports to map environmental pollution, the BioDesign Foundation is uniting stakeholders from across society in this race against time to advance The Custodians Plastic Race.
As The Ocean Race’s Sustainability Guest BioDesign Foundation launched The Custodians Plastic Race alongside the finale of this internationally renowned regatta in Genoa in July 2023. For the first time globally the navy, coast guard, military, police forces, Guardia di Finanza, schools, the city council, companies with their employees, non-governmental associations and volunteers of all ages came together to intensively clean the city on land and at sea. The credo is – All Together Now!
Subsequently, as Sustainable Partner of the Marina Militare Nastra Rosa Tour 2023 this format was successfully replicated in all regatta stops – Genova, La Maddalena, Vibo Valentina, Taranto, Vieste, Porto Rose and Venice, as well as in Las Palmas during the Mini Transat regatta. As Sustainability Partner of the European Sailing Federation EUROSAF, the European Athletic Championships 2024 or Foiling Week 2024 the format is promoted through further sport events as the ideal opportunity to generate traction for this race against time.
BioDesign Foundation intends to take The Custodians Plastic Race to the national level in 2025. Italy will become the first project country, before this holistic intervention model is exponentially exported from the Mediterranean region, to the entire world.
These are just two of the many initiatives that the BioDesign Foundation is pursuing. Please consult our brochure or contact our team directly for more information on the challenges we are solving at the root.
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