Wilding Practices Through Design: Playful Encounters for Reframing Control in Multispecies Cohabitation

Erik Andersson; Martín Ávila; Nelly Mäekivi

doi:10.7764/disena.28.Article.1

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Published: Jan 28, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.28.Article.1

Keywords:

design for biodiversity, heritage and memory, management regimes, wilding, play diseño para la biodiversidad, patrimonio y memoria, regímenes de gestión, silvestramiento, juego

Erik Andersson

Ecosystems and Environment Research Program, University of Helsinki; Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2716-5502

Martín Ávila

Department of Design, Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts, and Design

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3353-508X

Nelly Mäekivi

Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5912-9245

Abstract

This article explores how design can reintroduce elements of wildness into urban environments through artifacts that foster multispecies interaction. Wildness is not defined as a return to nature, but as a relational and semiotic rupture of control. It is an opportunity for nonhuman agency to emerge within human-managed spaces. Drawing on theories of affordances, play, cultural heritage, and metacommunication, we investigate how artifacts can function as semiotic prompts for interspecies encounters, and how cultural familiarity can afford ecological disruption. We use design interventions in a Stockholm allotment garden as our example, where prototypes created as habitat elements for newts also provoked human curiosity, connections to gardening traditions, and multispecies activity. We argue that design should prioritize attunement, ambiguity, and divergence over mastery or harmony, thus supporting new forms of cohabitation within the constraints of urban life.

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How to Cite

Andersson, E., Ávila, M., & Mäekivi, N. (2026). Wilding Practices Through Design: Playful Encounters for Reframing Control in Multispecies Cohabitation. Diseña, (28), Article.1. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.28.Article.1

Issue

No. 28 (2026): The Planetary Condition: Designs, Coexistences, and Care to Reimagine Habitability (1st Issue)

Section

Original Articles (part 1)

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

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Author Biographies

Erik Andersson, Ecosystems and Environment Research Program, University of Helsinki; Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University

Professor in the Ecosystems and Environment Research Program at the University of Helsinki and Principal Researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University. He is a member of the Helsinki Institute for Sustainability Science at the University of Helsinki. He earned an MSc, a Phil Lic, and a Phil Dr degree from Stockholm University. His research is centered on natural resources management, with a focus on understanding and promoting sustainable use and governance of different landscapes and the many functions they may carry, from biodiversity support to more anthropogenic “services” and benefits. Some of his recent publications include: “Resilient Biodiversity Conservation: Working with Social–Ecological Connections to Navigate Crises” (co-authored with R. Martin, P. Anderson, S. Brooks, G. Cortés Capano, A. González-García, V. Hakkarainen, M. Jay, S. Lavorel, M. Neyret, T. Plieninger, and C. M. Raymond; BioScience, advance online publication); “If a Swift Could Fight for Their Existence With Words: Nonhuman Interests and Politics” (with J. Kronenberg and C. Sandbrook; npj Urban Sustainability, Vol. 5, Issue 70); and “The Role of Relational Learning in Knowledge Co-Production” (with C. Seiferth and M. Tengö; People and Nature, Vol. 7, Issue 10).

Martín Ávila, Department of Design, Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts, and Design

Design Professor at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts, and Design. After obtaining an MA in Design Studies from Central Saint Martins, he pursued a PhD in Design from Gothenburg University. His research deals with design and posthumanism. He is the author of Designing for Interdependence: A Poetics of Relating (Bloomsbury, 2022). His recent publications include “Designing for Multispecies Affordances: A Poetics of Control” (co-authored with N. Mäekivi and E. Andersson; in Relational Design: Proceedings of the 11th Nordic Design Research Society, 2025) and “(De)signs as Response” (in Designing in Coexistence: Reflections on Systemic Change, 2023).

Nelly Mäekivi, Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu

Research Fellow in Semiotics at the Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics at the University of Tartu. She holds an MA and a PhD in semiotics and cultural studies from the University of Tartu. Her research focuses on hybrid spaces, where human lives intersect with the lives of other animals; intra and interspecies communication; ethology; anthropology; and human representations of other species. Recent publications include “The Role of Zoosemiotic Inquiry in Shared Environments: Interlinking Nature and Culture” (Cultural Science, Vol. 14, Issue 1); “Organisms as Agents in Zoosemiotic Perspective: The Case of Umwelt Reversion” (in Organismal Agency, Springer, 2024); and “Ecosemiotic Analysis of Species Reintroduction: The Case of European Mink (Mustela lutreola) in Estonia” (co-authored with R. Magnus; Biosemiotics, Vol. 16, Issue 2).

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