Meet the oldest living design system:

The Cell

Design observed in the cell is

 

Context

Context

Cells are one of the first biological systems that have evolved on Earth. This means cells have had the opportunity to be subject to one of the highest numbers of mutations in order to reach the shape and systems currently in place. They engage in an ongoing self-correcting mechanism through Darwinian logic, where trait selection through elimination of inefficient mechanisms ensures collective adaptivity and offspring survival.

Darwin first proposed this theory of evolution in 1859, outlining how living behaviors are always adaptively necessary within a broader ecosystem. Analysing patterns in nature is, therefore, an excellent predictor of system and design intelligence and can provide a framework towards adaptive, responsive and co-produced design futures.


Problem

Problem

While contemporary industrial design is dominated by a linear life cycle of extraction, production, consumption, and disposal, biological systems such as cells exhibit traits of continual renewal, cyclical decay, environmental adaptation.

Nature is cyclic by design, inherently sustainable, and built through coexisting ecosystems of matter and forces. On the other hand, current production methods are linear and static, aimed at short-term usage rather than long term contextualization.

Today there is a fundamental incompatibility with evolutionary logic in plastic production and production in alignment with circular economies. 

Vision

Vision

Design is not a static act of producing objects, but a negotiation between biological, material, and human systems.

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

Through my work, I try to create artifacts that bridge the increased alienation observed in modern life, one where seperation is the norm which also contrasts evolutionary logic.

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

This portfolio reflects a practice committed to regeneration, reciprocity, and the intelligence of natural processes as frameworks for the future of design. I explore how growth, decay, and responsiveness can guide new design logics through objects such as co-evolving jewelry, adaptive respiratory protection, or ecological interfaces for digital memory. These act as applied examples to my design thesis.

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.

2025 Copyright © Selma Danesi-Vold
All rights reserved.
2025 Copyright © Selma Danesi-Vold
All rights reserved.