Biodesign framework

Introduction to the Biodesign Framework

The Biodesign Framework is a comprehensive approach that seeks to guide the professional practice of biodesign, a growing discipline at the intersection of design, biology, and sustainability. While biodesign has the potential to revolutionize industries with sustainable and regenerative solutions, its application in industrial settings remains limited. To address this gap, the Biodesign Framework offers a structured methodology that helps designers navigate the complexities of working with biological systems.

Developed through expert interviews with 21 professional biodesigners, the framework is built upon five key areas: mindset, process, resources, materials, and future. These aspects, derived from qualitative research and analysis, provide deep insights into the motivations, practices, and challenges that biodesigners face in their work. By visually structuring these core principles, the framework serves as a roadmap for designers looking to incorporate biological agents into their design processes. This methodology not only highlights the importance of an open, iterative, and collaborative approach but also emphasizes the need to balance control and unpredictability within the biodesign process. The framework thus plays a pivotal role in bridging the gap between biodesign theory and industrial application, with future research aimed at further refining and validating the approach for widespread professional use.

Biodesign Framework: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16570372
Professional biodesign practices: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16570566

The biodesign Toolkit supports the sustainable professionalisation of this emerging field. 

This Toolkit serves three key purposes:

1. Informing designers about the biodesign process and all the elements it involves.

2. Inspiring designers about biodesign through thought-provoking questions, practical examples, example case studies, etc.

3. Activate designers to start applying biodesign in their projects or businesses. 

Toolkit use

• This toolkit does not intend to restrict or force you in a specific design process, but rather acts as a support, just like a sparring partner.

• If you want to take record of the cards used in your biodesign process, then you can note down the unique card numbers on the top-left corner of each card.

• Note that not all cards will be immediately applicable in your biodesign process.

• Note that cards may recur in different cycles in your biodesign process.

• TIP: Check the toolkit regularly

• Next is a manual that shows a possible way to kick start your biodesign process, but feel free to adapt along the way. 

How to start out

1. Identify your motivation

   • You have a design challenge and you think nature could give an answer. 

   • You have a material or process of biological origin and you want to explore its valorisation into our human world.

2. Orient yourself in the process
   Use the Process Map on next card

   • If you start from a design challenge, start in the  Human  perspective on the left.

   • If you start from a bioprocess/material, start in the natural  Bio  perspective on the right.

3. Define the context of your biodesign project
   Use the  Context  cards

4. Start cycling back and forth between the human- and the bio-perspectives of your process, using the  Process   cards. The aim here is to seamlessly blur our human and natural world into one unity, as showcased with the fading colors. 

5. Every time you arrive in one of the two perspectives, you explore its accompanying cards;  Mindset  and  Materials . 

6. Every time you bridge the two perspectives, reflect on the future steps by using  Future  cards.

7. Use  Resource  cards along the way. 

8. Use  Tip & Tricks  cards when referred to on other cards.

Note

This open-ended toolkit serves as a versatile sparring partner, intended for various uses like reflection, activation, communication, and process guidance, but does not guarantee immediate fully biobased results or project success.

Understanding this process and being aware of its concepts inherently makes you become a better biodesigner.

Biodesign Toolkit © 2025 by “UGent - Bert Vuylsteke” is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit https://creative commons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/