Design for Mediterranean Blue Ecologies
Design for Mediterranean Blue Ecologies is a new course developed by MADE and offered for the first time to students from Montana State University. Conceived in collaboration with the Consorzio dell’Area Marina Protetta del Plemmirio, the course investigates design as an ecological practice, inviting students to explore the relationships between humans, marine environments, and more-than-human worlds through the lens of Blue Humanities.
Situated within the ecological and cultural landscape of Syracuse, the program approaches the Mediterranean not simply as a geographical context, but as a living archive of histories, practices, and interdependent forms of life. Through an interdisciplinary methodology that brings together environmental humanities, marine science, local knowledge, and spatial design, students are encouraged to rethink the role of design as a medium for ecological awareness, observation, and coexistence.
The course unfolds through a sequence of guest lectures, fieldwork, and embodied immersive experiences. Boat excursions and snorkeling sessions within the Plemmirio Marine Protected Area invite students to encounter the underwater environment directly, while a visit to the Museo del Mare di Siracusa offers access to the city's maritime heritage through traditional fishing techniques, boat-building practices, and the craftsmanship of nasse. Additional lectures expand this perspective through scientific, anthropological, artistic, and activist approaches, from the cultural representations of the octopus in art and mythology to conversations with marine biologists, environmental practitioners, and Sea Shepherd, whose work along the Syracusan coastline highlights the ongoing commitment required to protect Mediterranean ecosystems.
Rather than separating theory from practice, the course frames knowledge as something to be experienced through direct engagement with place. Scientific research, cultural memory, environmental activism, and sensory experience converge to create a shared framework from which design inquiry can emerge.
This process culminates in FOUND, a collective immersive installation conceived and realized by the students in collaboration with the scenography duo based in Origia, Scenapparente. Inspired by the underwater landscape of Syracuse and the remarkable intelligence of the octopus—one of the Mediterranean's most emblematic and vulnerable species—the installation reconstructs a life-sized octopus den as both habitat and narrative environment. By inviting visitors to enter, touch, observe, and inhabit this space, FOUND proposes an embodied encounter with the marine world, encouraging a shift in perspective toward coexistence, reciprocity, and ecological interdependence.
Alongside the collective installation, each student develops an individual design project under the guidance of professors Tori and Grace. Drawing from field observations, personal experiences, and the encounters that shaped the course, these works reinterpret each student's relationship with the sea and their time in Syracuse through distinct design languages. Together, they reveal how ecological thinking can generate not only collective spatial experiences, but also deeply personal forms of inquiry, reflection, and creative expression.
