In a challenging global context, design education is expanding its theoretical, methodological, and epistemological frameworks by engaging in dialogue with other disciplines and encouraging students to explore complex issues through collaborative, speculative, and reflective approaches. Consequently, an increasing number of undergraduate research projects have managed to transcend curricular limitations, contributing to the development of disciplinary knowledge. This special issue aims to bring together such works, highlighting their academic value, disciplinary contribution, and potential impact on the professional and social environment. Base Diseño e Innovación (BDI) invites graduates and their thesis advisors or mentors to submit articles presenting the results of design research carried out as part of their degree projects between 2018 and 2024. Likewise, academics who have led these initiatives are invited to share their experiences, reflections, and the theoretical and methodological approaches that have guided their teaching practice.

Editors

Giovanna Danies, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
Trinidad Lazcano, Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile
Úrsula Bravo, Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile

Longevity is becoming a defining characteristic of contemporary societies, reshaping how the discipline of design creates products, services, and environments. As global life expectancy increases, there is a growing need to move beyond traditional age-focused approaches and embrace longevity as an opportunity for innovation. This special issue explores the intersections of design, longevity, and sustainability, examining how human-centered and systemic design approaches can enhance well-being, autonomy, and social participation. It shows the role of design in creating adaptable solutions that support individuals across different life stages, foster intergenerational connections, and promote sustainable practices. This issue aims to inspire new meaningful perspectives on how design can contribute to a more inclusive and resilient future, rethinking longevity as a dynamic and experience-rich phase of life. 

Guest Editors:

Mariluz Soto, Facultad de Diseño, Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile.
Sheng-Hung Lee, AgeLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States.
Melanie Sarantou, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, Japan.
Paula Melo Signerez, Faculty Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.

Climate change, driven by human activities, is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity today. Our excessive consumption and reliance on fossil fuels have brought us to a critical tipping point that demands immediate action towards more sustainable practices prioritising the climate crisis and social equity. This special issue aims to explore how design can contribute to accelerating transitions towards sustainable futures. It focuses on developing more sustainable solutions and practices and on how these can displace unsustainable incumbent solutions. This raises new questions regarding co-design methods in social sustainability, which may affect the adoption and accessibility of sustainable solutions, ensuring they are equitable and just. Moreover, it explores how design collaborations can be structured within open-sustainable design networks and how design can be strategically directed to promote paths for innovation towards desired sustainable futures. 

Today, climate change, Covid-19 and geopolitical power plays are affecting traditional living standards with a series of unheard economic downturns, risk of inflation, and social upheavals. After one hundred years since the start of Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, it is timely to reflect on what would be the shape of that movement for democratization by design if it was to happen in the Global South. The latter is a concept that groups countries based on socio-economic and political characteristics in the regions of Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania, and by extension, it also infiltrates the developed countries (Global North) through their migrant and disadvantaged classes and sub-cultures.  

Redefining design education and professional practice with a New Green Bauhaus from the Global South approach will assist a design response that take us from industrialized hardware manufacturing to an emerging experiential and life-centered design culture focussed on all species and their environment, not just user and human-centered that greatly reaffirms status quo; while also including manual fabrication, digitalisation, automation, and advanced technologies for human intelligence augmentation and enhancement of production with artificial intelligence. 

This special issue brings together nine scholars from seven universities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Italy and Mexico, who, through their research, answer some of the questions proposed by the guest editors Mauricio Novoa Muñoz from Western Sydney University (WSU), Australia, and Rodrigo Vargas Callegari from the University of Valparaíso (UVC), Chile.

Over the past few decades, the world's population has grown rapidly, resulting in an increased urbanisation process. This has led to a large concentration of people, services, production, and consumption in cities, causing a substantial social, economic, and environmental impact and raising social inequality, traffic, and mobility issues. Governments can tackle these challenges in this scenario by utilising information and communication technologies (ICTs), renewable energy, and other innovative solutions to build smarter and more sustainable cities that prioritise their citizens while minimising their impact on the environment. An innovative city prioritising sustainability, humanity, and intelligence utilises ICT to enhance the well-being of its citizens, promotes inclusivity, and optimises its operations and services. This is all achieved while meeting current and future generations’ economic, social, environmental, and cultural needs. This special issue entitled "Design for sustainable, humane and smart cities" presents five manuscripts reflecting design research studies on shaping more sustainable cities in a broad sense and harnessing emerging digital technologies.

Guest editors: Marco Vinicio Ferruzca Navarro, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México, and Marco Aurelio Lobo Junior, Centro Universitario IESB, Brasil.

Humanity is experiencing a profound multidimensional change. The ecological crisis, the post-pandemic crisis caused by COVID-19, and the new political conflicts contribute to the increase in the price and availability of traditional materials. Consequently, the demand for materials with a sustainable approach proliferates and motivates the development of new ways of thinking and doing in design. The design of emerging materials was born with the idea of mitigating or eliminating environmental damage, integrating aspects of circular design, biological degradation in the life cycle, and a minimal ecological footprint, providing an opportunity to replace traditional polluting materials. In addition, they offer users the chance to achieve new experiences. In this scenario, alternatives such as bio-design or bioinspired design emerge as a new practice that intertwines biology, engineering and design. Complementarily, self-production, the increasing democratization of advanced technologies, and bio-manufacturing have inspired design communities worldwide, tackling technical and methodological challenges to develop emerging consumer materials. The various solutions to technical, emotional, and application requirements lead to new user experiences, in addition to presenting environmental, social, and economic advantages. This special issue entitled "Emerging materials and [bio-design]," brings together ten manuscripts show research developments and approaches for materials design relevant to the current scenario.

Complex notions, such as health and wellbeing find in design a vital process of integrating different actors and experiences. Design is the path to develop collaboratively innovative solutions to create or improve products, services and systems in healthcare and welfare. Design processes, such as design sprints form a collaborative way to integrate design thinking on healthcare environment and wellbeing. However, designers should improve their abilities to build on evidence-based research projects, with the understanding of the social complex system.

GUEST EDITORS
 
Mariluz Soto
Facultad de Diseño, Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile

 
Haian Xue
Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

 
Emmanuel Tsekleves
Future Cities Research Institute, Lancaster University, United Kingdom

Experts claim that the biological resources that the Earth generates in a year do not last more than eight months today. Furthermore, the effects of climate change will continue to increase in variety and intensity. But every crisis is an opportunity. If design is about performing actions to change existing situations for preferred ones, then the answer must come from design. Precisely, this issue of Base Design and Innovation seeks to advance in this line by making visible the role of design in addressing global challenges.