From Subversive Labs to Biodesign Literate Curricula: Rethinking Biodesign Education

Authors: Orcajada M. A., Rognoli V, Crespo-Santiago J, Ordóñez I.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1017/S2977905726100390

Keywords: biodesign; biodesign literacy; subversive; labs; education.

Funding: This research was partially funded by the Erasmus+ programme Centres of Vocational Excellence, “Transforming Education Area and Competency Hub for Sustainable Development” (project acronym: TEACH4SD). The content of this publication does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union; responsibility for the information and views expressed lies entirely with the author(s).

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Biodesign has gained prominence over the past two decades yet remains conceptually hazy and institutionally unsettled, positioned between biology, material science and design, with no shared vocabulary, clear entry routes or agreement on who a biodesigner is.

As biodesign enters universities, there is a risk that standardisation may erase the experimental, subversive cultures through which the field emerged. This paper combines a focused literature review with an online survey of self-identified biodesigners and autoethnographic accounts of teaching in improvised studios, kitchens-as-labs and hybrid digital fabrication spaces.

The analysis profiles biodesigners as highly educated yet largely self-taught practitioners who rely on tinkering, informal infrastructures and collaborations rather than standard bioscience curricula, revealing tensions between institutional demands for safety, learning outcomes, employability and students’ experiences of open-ended, engagement with living systems.

The paper proposes biodesign literacy as a framework that supports standardisation while recognising risk and uncertainty as legitimate sites of biological learning.