Delfina is a biologist and design researcher whose work engages the regenerative paradigm through transdisciplinary practice. She is a co-investigator on the ESRC/AHRC funded project Becoming Regenerative (B-Regen).
Dr Delfina Fantini van Ditmar is a co-investigator on Becoming Regenerative, an ESRC/AHRC-funded project examining the role of art and design in shaping regeneration. She holds a BA in Biology and completed her PhD at the Royal College of Art, School of Design, with a thesis entitled The IdIoT.
Her practice explores ecological thinking, reflective practices, epistemological paradigms, and alternative futures. Responding to environmental collapse, her research examines the critical role of regenerative design.
In her teaching, Delfina encourages students to think systemically, question dominant knowledge frameworks, and critically reflect on the wider implications of design decisions.
She has been a critic and Visiting Lecturer in several institutions, including The Bartlett, Architectural Association, Central Saint Martins (UAL), The Design Museum, Cambridge University, Manchester School of Art, Goldsmiths University of London, ETH Zürich, TU Delft, École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD), Parsons NYC, Politectino di Milano, Istituto Marangoni, Domus Academy, Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), National Institute of Design (NID) India, Syracuse University, Rice University, Fab City Foundation, Linnaeus University, Critical Media Lab Basel and TU Berlin, among others.
Key details
School, Centre or Area
Gallery
More information
Research interests
Driven by her interest in ecological thinking, reflective practices, and interrelations as systemic responses to environmental collapse, Delfina’s critical practice spans fields such as fashion, product design, design innovation, and architecture, examining material ethics of care, regeneration and the paradigm shifts required in design.
Within Becoming Regenerative, her work focuses on regenerative design, the role of regenerative imagination in art and design education and future regenerative design curricula. Her broader interests in the project include integrative methodological approaches, speculative regenerative design for alternative economic systems and design for policymaking.
Practice
Delfina has a transdisciplinary background linking critical futures, design research and ecological thinking. By problematising the simplification of prevalent ecological problem-framing, acknowledging inter-relationships and reconsidering epistemological frameworks, Delfina's research looks at material ethics of care and regenerative practices.
Research funding
Becoming Regenerative
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) / Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Research Grant
ES/Y002083/1
Awards
Heinz von Foerster Award (2011)
Current and recent research projects
Becoming Regenerative (B-Regen) is an AHRC/ESRC UKRI-funded research initiative exploring how innovative regenerative ideas emerge, evolve, and gain traction within entrepreneurial contexts to inform regenerative policymaking.
Led by a multidisciplinary team, the project follows a global research on real-world journeys of creatives and entrepreneurs as they push the boundaries of regenerative innovation.
The project aims to explore how design can catalyse radical regenerative practices, ways of being, imaginaries, while also investigating new economic systems and co-creating more supportive ecosystems.
Through imaginative and evidence-based research, we aim to surface the challenges, paradoxes, and strategies that ventures trying to implement regenerative innovations navigate within the confines of present constraints of current economic systems.
B-Regen aims to generate the most comprehensive account of how design-driven regenerative innovations emerge, particularly in the context of art and design schools, as well as the creative sector. From this, the project intends to culminate in policy-making recommendations.
Publications, exhibitions, other outcomes
Selected Presentations
2026. Regenerate! Building Nature-Positive Futures for People, Cities, and the Planet. Climate Hub Davos. Davos, CH
2025. Panel. Working with Nature. World Design Congress (WDC). The Barbican. London, UK
2025. Panel. Bauhaus Earth Regenerative Futures Symposium. Atelier Gardens. Berlin, DE
2025. Conference / Paper presentation. Recompose. An invitation to explore the pedagogical environment as a regenerative front-line. Fashion Prosperity. Università degli Studi di Firenze, Department of Architecture. Florence, IT
2024. Designing Design Education: Impulse for a New Curriculum. IF Design Foundation. Pinakothek der Moderne. Munich, DE
2024. Conference / Paper presentation.
RSD 13: Rivers of Conversations. Cultivating a Regenerative Imagination at Art and Design Universities. NO | Online
2024. Panel. Nature and the City: Humanity as part of an entangled nature/culture. Entangled Future Festival. Cambridge University. Cambridge, UK
2023. Roundtable. Transition to Just and Sustainable Fashion. Organised by the RCA, Pangaia and the Leonardo Centre on Business for Society. World Economic Forum. Goals House. Davos, CH
2023. Conference / Paper presentation. Entanglements of Wastelands of Fashion. Systemic Design Association RSD 12 ‘Entangled in Emergence’. Systemic Education for Systemic Change. Online
2023. Conference / Paper presentation. A NOT TOO COMFORTABLE FUTURE. Earth, Water, Air, and Fire: the four Elements of Fashion. Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV). Venezia, IT
2023. Conference / Paper presentation. Design Future(s); a new educational framework for design education in the 21st Century. International Symposium on ‘Future of Design Education’ (InFuSED23). Indian Institute of Science (IIS). Bangalore, IN
2022. Panel Discussion. BECOMING REGENERATIVE: Redefining creativity in a more-than-human world. Central Saint Martins. London, UK
2022. Keynote. Imagining and Designing in Dark Times. A conversation with Virginia Tassinari. INDEX Media Biennale. Universidade do Minho. Braga, PT
2022. Speaker. DESIS Philosophy Talk #7.7: The Politics of Nature: More than human futures: new epistemological frameworks for designing in times of crisis. Politecnico di Milano, IT | Online
2021. DESIS Philosophy Talk #7.3: The Politics of Nature: Designing Scenarios of Multi-species Collaborative Survivals. A conversation with Virginia Tassinari, Alder Keleman Saxena, Laura Forlano, Daniela Rosner and Gabrielle Benabdallah. Politecnico di Milano, IT | Online
Selected Talks
2025. Regenerative Threads: Rethinking Fashion Through Locality, Resourcefulness & Legacy. Instituto Marangoni. Florence, IT
2025. The Idiot. PhD Seminar: Au-delà de la recherche-creation. École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) and Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL). Paris, FR
2025. Regenerative Futures. Politecnico di Milano. Milan, IT
2024. Regenerative Design. MA Design for Distributed Innovation. Fab City Foundation & the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC). Barcelona, SP
2023. The Role of the IdIoT. Cambridge University. Cambridge, UK
2023. Restore. Design for Planet. Design Council. The Depot. London, UK
2023. Design Futures. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Delhi). New Delhi, IN
2022. A Not Too Comfortable Future. University of Leeds. Leeds, UK
2022. RESTORE. In conversation with architecture practice APPARATA. Design Museum. London, UK
2021. Masterclass: The Digital Culture of Design. In conversation with Evgeny Morozov. Ministry of Art, Culture and Heritage, Chile. Chilean Design Month | Online
2021. Notes from Tomorrow: Positioning Design Practice within Paradigms of Reduction. In conversation with Timothy Morton. RCA. London, UK
2021. Notes from Tomorrow: Positioning Design Practice within Paradigms of Reduction. In conversation with Paola Antonelli and Jan Boelen. RCA. London, UK
2019. Design + Biologie. École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (Ensad). Paris, FR
2019. 30 years of the Web: where do we go next? European Parliament. Event organised by Nesta part of the Next Generation Internet (NGI) project. Brussels, BE
2018. Taking the code for a walk. The Bartlett, UCL. London, UK
Selected exhibitions
2024. Beta 2024, Timișoara Architecture Biennial. Timișoara, RU. Collaborators: Zowie Broach / Lee Roach
2022. Design Researcher in Residency (DRiR) ‘RESTORE’. Design Museum. London, UK
Selected publications
Fantini van Ditmar, D (2025) Innovation für die Gesundheit Unseres Planeten (Innovation for Planetary Health). Designing Design Education. iF Foundation. Av Edition.
Fantini van Ditmar, D & Toivonen, T (2025) Cultivating a Regenerative Imagination at Art and Design Universities. Proceeding of Relating Systems Thinking and Design. Research Design Association 13.
Fantini van Ditmar, D., Grew, R., Šebeková, Z., & Twigger Holroyd A (2024) Convenors’ Note – Critical Textiles. Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice, 12:1-2, 144-147. DOI: 10.1080/20511787.2024.2461924
Fantini van Ditmar, D., Alderson-Bythell, L., & Broach, Z (2025) RECOMPOSE: An invitation to explore the pedagogical environment as a regenerative front-line. Prosperity Fashion Conference proceedings. Fashion Highlight Journal, pp 172-185.
Fantini van Ditmar, D., & Broach, Z (2024) M by Madonna. In Stanescu, O & Galis, C. Cover Me Softly. Walther König.
Fantini van Ditmar, D., Broach, Z and Bartlett, S. (2023) Entanglements of Wastelands of Fashion. Proceeding of Relating Systems Thinking and Design. Research Design Association 12.
Fantini van Ditmar, D. (2023) A Not Too
Comfortable Future. Design for the Unthinkable-World: Strange Ecology and Unwelcome Change. Edited by Rodgers, P., Bremner, C., &; Innella, G. Routledge.
Fantini D. (2023) Juan Downey: Invisible Architecture. 100 x 100 Diseño en Chile. Pozo Marcic Ensamble.
Fantini van Ditmar D, Lehtinen,S, Ozkaramanli, D, Nagenborg M, Ferrarelo L and Schwobel-Pateld C (2022) Conversation: Design + Ethics: How is it more than the sum of its parts? Conversations - DRS 2022 Bilbao.
Fantini van Ditmar, D. (2022) A Not Too Comfortable Future. RESTORE catalogue. Design Museum.
Fantini van Ditmar, D. (2020) The IdIoT in the SMART Home. Architecture and the Smart City. Critiques Series. New York: Routledge.
Fantini van Ditmar, D. (2019) “A Better Place: Towards a Collective Intelligence for Europe”. A project funded by the European Commission.
External collaborations and activities
Advisory board
Centre of Excellence in Design Research at MIT World Peace University, Goa
