AN APPLIED MORE-THAN-HUMAN URBAN DESIGN STUDIO
A More-Than-Human City: Milan
A 5-Day intensive within Politecnico di Milano’s Master of Science Programme, exploring designing for coexistence between human and urban wildlife in cities, using ecosystem mapping, non-human personas, and life-centred design.
What this project explores
How might cities be designed as shared habitats that support both human and non-human life to adapt and thrive together?
Cities like Milan are shaped primarily around human efficiency, mobility, and comfort.
Yet these same spaces are also home to a wall lizards, hedgehogs, pigeons, nutrias, bees, and countless other species adapting daily to heat, habitat fragmentation, and human activity.
In 2025, I had the honour of being invited by the PSSD Board of the Design School back to Politecnico di Milano to run a More Than Human Design workshop for the Master of Science programme in Product Service System Design.
Across five packed days, 40+ curious service, system, and communication design students from around the world used LCD Lab’s exclusive more-than-human design tools to explore how life-centred design and non-human personas could be used within educational and urban contexts to expand who cities are designed for.
Some of Milan’s urban wildlife
Urban spaces & infrastructure
Public transport hubs, cemeteries, parks, canals, residential complexes, and civic spaces as everyday environments shared by humans and non-human life
Urban wildlife & biodiversity
City-dwelling species such as hedgehogs, bees, wall lizards, birds, geckos, and nutrias, and the ecological roles they play within Milan’s urban systems
Behaviours & coexistence
How everyday human behaviours, movement, and cultural practices affect non-human survival, conflict, and adaptation in cities
Living ecosystems
Urban animals and ecological systems affected by habitat fragmentation, heat stress, and design decisions within the city
The problems and opportunities
Urban design often prioritises short-term human convenience, resulting in unintended harm to non-human life.
Common challenges include:
- Habitat fragmentation caused by transport and development
- Heat stress and lack of refuge for urban wildlife
- Design decisions that unintentionally exclude or endanger species
- Human–wildlife conflict addressed through control rather than design
- Biodiversity strategies disconnected from everyday urban spaces
As climate pressures increase, these challenges affect not only wildlife but the resilience and liveability of cities themselves.
Shifting students’ human-centric design thinking to life-centred
“When we design for humans we really talk about sustainability from the human’s perspective…what if the plants need something… I feel like it’s brought up like a new vision new kinds of way of thinking.”
“The tools and methodologies are the same as we use for the human, but we do it in a very like different way, we do observation, but at the same time we cannot ask them, we don’t know how it feels to be them…”
“The holistic part of the ecosystem mapping was interesting because a lot of our designs in my previous experience have been through the lens of one stakeholder, not thinking in terms of ecosystem…”
“Animals also need places for wellness, like for taking care of themselves and sunbathing, like we do.”
Unlock the ideas that design for all life
Members access the more-than-human innovations in detail.
Plus free tools, the non-human persona library, and introductions to futuring, biomimicry, and other life-centred design branches.
Interested in a More Than Human workshop?
This workshop can be customised to your place (building, school, etc.) and duration needs.
Learn More-Than-Human Design
