Designing (with, for, and after) nature

Gentler Futures Festival
Preview session: Designing (with, for, and after) nature

An informal afternoon of ideas, talks and exchanges, reflecting on how design might learn to coexist with the living systems that sustain it. Rather than seeing nature as a resource to be shaped, extracted or optimised, this session invites us to consider how design can listen, respond and contribute to the conditions that allow life to flourish.

The theme of this event, Designing (with, for, and after) nature, explores ways of working that acknowledge the needs, rhythms and intelligence of the more-than-human world. How might we design (with) natural processes rather than against them? What would it mean to design (for) other species and ecosystems, not only for human comfort or efficiency? And how might design evolve (after) recognising that humans are not at the centre, but one voice in a larger ecological conversation?

During the second part of the afternoon, through an open call in collaboration with Pecha Kucha Lisboa, we welcome on stage designers, architects, researchers, and makers to share projects that reflect regenerative and symbiotic approaches to design. If you wish to take part, full details of the open call are available here.

Designing (with, for, and after) nature is a Preview session of Gentler Futures Festival 2026.


About the program

15h00 —  Open doors

15h30 —  Introduction to the event
15h45 —  Designing (with, for, and after) nature 
                 Davide Onestini, André Trindade at BY THE END OF MAY

16h30 —  Drinks and snacks

17h00 —  Project presentations 
                 In collaboration with Pecha Kucha Lisboa

18h30 —  DJ set, drinks and snacks
20h00 —  Thank you for joining us

The event will be held in English.


How to attend

The event is free to attend upon registration. While the venue is open for all, the Talks Room will have limited seats available which are allocated on a first-come first-served basis. You are welcome to join us on our patio at any time during the event—even just for a drink!

Mouraria Creative Hub
Travessa dos Lagares 1
1100-300 Lisbon

We are mindful of privacy rights and obligations under GDPR, therefore we would like to inform you that we are going to capture the event with photographs and/or video recordings. These will be used to share the event’s activities on our website and communication platforms, as well as in eventual articles or publications. If you wish for your image not to be used, we ask you to let us know during the event or by email.


About the organisers

Gentler Futures Festival is the celebration of design as agent of change—design that goes beyond (design) and stimulates a type of transformation that sometimes is cultural, other times social, sometimes economic, and other times environmental.

We celebrate it by gathering designers, architects, policymakers, engineers and researchers whose work weaves design with radical thinking, advocacy, community empowerment, and a genuine thirst for paradigm shift. You may call it (society-centred), (life-centred) or (planet-centred) design. At its core, it’s what holds a sense of both accountability and stewardship for the broader multitude of systems that we, as humans, shape and impact. This is what inspires us, drives us, excites us. This is what we celebrate.

Gentler Futures Festival is a not-for-profit initiative by BY THE END OF MAY, a research and design studio exploring the roles of manufacturing and crafts in creating a (non-linear), (post-consumerism) and (anti-alienation) economy. Co-funded by República Portuguesa / Direção Geral das Artes. Hosted by Mouraria Creative Hub and Câmara Municipal de Lisboa.