Material beyond Materials. An interdisciplinary workshop for biodesigning

The urgencies of the contemporary scenario impose on the world of design the need for complex responses; the dialogue with other disciplines becomes a fundamental planning source. In this sense, the necessity is to have an increasing need of designers capable of understanding and interacting with the hard sciences in a more conscious and complete way, in order to develop future application scenarios in every aspect of design, from materials to everyday products, up to new systemic scenarios. The contribution presents a 3CFU training experience carried out by the Design for Sustainability Laboratory (University of Florence) which had the aim of introducing students to Material Design and Biodesign. The applied methodology started from the concepts of Material Experience and Material Driven Design, including interdisciplinary skills in the design process from the early design stages. In particular, the students were led to experiment with "biotinkering" solutions with the mycelium - Pleurotus ostreatus - within a biosafety Level (BSL) 1 Lab, creating materials prototypes. In the training activities, students were provided with theoretical notions and resources relating to biology and the scientific method with the aim of combining Design and Life Sciences. From a methodological point of view, this knowledge served to provide future biodesigners with greater awareness of biotechnological processes and laboratory work. The originality and success of the Workshop consist in opening up new design horizons to future biodesigners thanks to a deep knowledge of natural processes and the possibility of consciously designing starting from the micro scale.