A decade ago the UN convention set targets for biodiversity – alarmingly, none of them have been achieved. In the next decade, we must embrace our responsibility to support nature to thrive, the survival of all other species on which we depend, lies in our hands. Over the last 200 years, Australia has lost 75% of its rainforests and has the world’s worst record of mammal extinctions. While we continue to see nature as something that we can take and destroy and as something that it is separate to us, it is unlikely that anything will change. Here in Australia, even the threat of koala extinction after last year’s bushfires has not resulted in sufficient action. Projects and policy across the UK are being assessed using Building with Nature Standards and achieving independent recognition via a BwN Award. To help inspire you, we've pulled together five fantastic designs, all of which incorporate natural elements in different ways and do so brilliantly.

The choice of a business model can’t rely on the goals of the owners. There might be a natural talent and an insane gut feeling but it would be foolish to rest on them. We were looking at design from a non-human perspective — what materials an animal might use, what forms they might take,” Withers says. Rather than design elements such as plants, wildlife and water, the pathways to nature connectedness outline the types of activity to prompt with those natural elements. They provide a framework with great flexibility of application. The pathways are:P.s. design engineers don't necessarily have to design things or stuff but are good at translating vision, and targets to practical action.

It is the long-term value you should be looking at. It is about attracting people, keeping them productive, happy and healthy, and making sure they don’t want to leave. In reality, 90 percent of the operating costs of a business are its staff. Every time a staff member leaves, as research suggests, it costs 2.5 times their salary to replace them.”We only implement new approaches if we are 100% positive they are better than the existing ones. This alone comes from a great deal of research. Mengyu Cao is a Chinese artist and designer currently living in San Francisco. She's the founder of Yiqi Hanzi, aiming to share the beauty of Chinese characters and cultures with the world. UX writing is a process of creating copy for user interfaces. Some of you might be surprised to see writing listed among the fundamental aspects of interface design. However, writing is the most important accomplishment in human history. We are surrounded by products that are just the recreation of someone’s ideas. Sometimes those ideas are centuries old. Ideas travel by words. Short interactions with non-rhythmic sensory stimuli – which are created by objects in constant yet unpredictable motion – have been shown to improve blood pressure and heart rate as well as have positive effects on the sympathetic nervous system. Bochart says you can incorporate this into a home office by adding waving grass outside a window or a fish bowl on a desk. Applications are now open for the 2023/24 cohort. This is the Design Museum and Future Observatory’s annual programme for design research into the climate crisis.