Meet the oldest living design system:

The Cell

Evolutionary Design logic is

 

Context

Context

Cells are one of the first biological systems that have evolved on Earth, emerging over 3.8 billion years ago. Consequently, they are one of the living organisms that have been subject to the highest number of mutations in order to reach their current shape and design system.


Through Darwinian logic, nature engages in continual self-correction. Traits are indirectly selected from the elimination of inefficient ones to ensure collective adaptivity and offspring survival. Darwin first proposed his theory of evolution in 1859, outlining how living behaviors can be argued to be adaptively necessary within a broader ecosystem.


Analysing patterns in nature is, therefore, an excellent predictor of system and design intelligence. This can provide a framework towards adaptive, responsive, and co-produced design futures through new product design methodologies. 


Problem

Problem

While contemporary industrial design is dominated by a linear life cycle of extraction, where production, consumption, and disposal are the norm, biological systems instead exhibit continual renewal through cyclical decay, environmental adaptation, and ecological interconnectivity. There can thus be argued to be a fundamental incompatibility between evolutionary logic and today's design production.  


When systems are designed for speed, efficiency, or scale, they separate humans from materials, environments, and consequences. This mirrors how we treat nature as external and extractable, which can be mediated through new technological objects and interfaces. The current modern ideology of hyperindependece and individualism separate us in a world that is intrinsically interlinked and relies on attachment and connection to function. 

Vision

Vision

Design is not a static act of object production but rather a negotiation between biological, material, and human systems.


Through my work, I aim to create artifacts that bridge current alienated systems in order to illustrate interconnected tendencies of both the natural and built environments.

My work merges emotional ecosystems with biological systems to question how humans can co-evolve with the materials and environments we shape.

This portfolio reflects a practice committed to regeneration, reciprocity, and the intelligence of natural processes as frameworks for the future of design. What unifies these projects is a desire to merge biological logic with meaningful research-driven design and technology.


Hopefully, this can reshape perceptions of interdependence, reframing behavior and value systems of individuals towards product and ecological respect 

Design, to me, is a way of creating new relationships. 

Moving forward, I aim to continue developing regenerative design models that integrate biological logic, systemic thinking, and emotional experience as co-equal forms of intelligence. 

Index

Co-Production: Projects that primarily investigate interconnectivity through interactive objects that co-shape new matter
Future Artifacts : Solution oriented projects aiming to respond to modern environmental challenges
Contextual Environments: Projects seeking to translate invisible systems into material reality
2026 Copyright © Selma Danesi-Vold
All rights reserved.
2026 Copyright © Selma Danesi-Vold
All rights reserved.