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研究者、教育者与设计实践者，长期致力于设计、生态、文化与技术的交汇研究。
毕业于米兰理工大学后，魏佛兰博士移居亚洲，探索跨文化与跨学科的设计领域。她曾获欧盟委员会博士后研究资助，在中国乡村开展可持续农业与设计创新研究，并于2010年定居上海。
现任同济大学设计与创新学院副教授，主持课程与研究项目，与国际DESIS网络（社会创新与可持续设计）保持紧密合作。她的研究与教学聚焦于生命与生态为中心的设计、城乡可持续创新、数字社会创新，以及以食物、文化与设计为媒介的系统转型。她指导的学生屡获国际奖项，形成了一个充满创造力与批判精神的学习共同体。她的设计实践以人种学、设计研究与数据可视化为核心方法，贯通学术与产业创新。她的艺术创作探索替代影像与生物媒介，展现出跨文化洞察与多物种视角。她的研究深受开放设计（Open Design）理念启发，关注设计如何在社会、生态与技术系统之间发挥伦理与创造的力量。
除教学与科研外，她担任同济大学与米兰、都灵理工大学双学位项目“Politong”科学协调员，推动中欧设计教育的深度合作。她创立并领导生态与文化创新实验室（Ecology & Cultures Innovation Lab），以设计方法探讨生态转型、公民参与与城市可持续发展。
她曾在中欧多所大学担任客座教授和讲师，教授设计方法论、文化与社会创新、可视化设计与开放设计实践等课程，并为多家国际品牌与机构担任设计研究顾问，将设计的力量转化为社会与生态的积极行动。在课堂之外，她积极参与艺术合作、社区共创与公民科学项目，推动生态公民教育与上海的可持续发展。她相信，设计教育不仅要想象可持续的未来，更要以关怀为根、以好奇为驱、以共智为行，共同建构一个更有生命力的世界。
Researcher, educator, and practitioner working at the intersection of design, ecology, culture, and technology.
After graduating from Politecnico di Milano, Dr. Francesca Valsecchi moved to Asia in search of intercultural and interdisciplinary territories for her design practice. She held a European Commission postdoctoral fellowship focusing on sustainable agriculture and design innovation in rural China, and has been based in Shanghai since 2010.
She is currently an Associate Professor at the College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, where she leads courses and research activities connected to the DESIS Network (Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability). Her teaching and research explore life-centred and ecological design, rural–urban innovation, digital social innovation, and the cultural and material dimensions of food systems. She has an outstanding record in mentoring undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students whose work has been recognised internationally. Her design practice combines ethnography, design research, and data visualisation, bridging academic inquiry and applied innovation. She also maintains an artistic practice based on alternative photographic and bio-media processes, reflecting a fascination with cross-cultural and more-than-human perspectives. Her research is inspired by open design principles, exploring how design acts as a form of mediation between society, technology, and the living world.
Beyond academia, she is Scientific Coordinator of “Politong”, the double-degree program between Tongji University and the Politecnico of Milan and Turin, fostering deep international collaboration in design education. She leads the Ecology & Cultures Innovation Lab, a research and teaching platform investigating how design can catalyse ecological transition, citizen participation, and sustainable transformation of cities. She has held visiting and guest lectureships in China and abroad, teaching Design Methodology, Culture and Innovation, Visualisation, and Open Design Practices. She also works as a design researcher and consultant for international brands and institutions, applying design to social and environmental challenges.
Her work extends beyond the university into community-based and artistic collaborations, citizen-science projects, and environmental activism in Shanghai. She believes that design education should not only imagine sustainable futures but actively build them — through care, curiosity, and collective intelligence.
Courses, research, and portfolio: https://ecology.shanghai-visual.org/web
我们是同济大学设计与创新学院的一个设计研究实验室，致力于通过设计重新思考自然、文化与技术之间的关系。 我们的研究关注如何让设计超越“自然”与“文化”的二元对立，将城市重新想象为一个生态系统，让人类活动与自然系统能够共生、再生，并在持续的演化中保持平衡。实验室汇聚了来自不同学科的研究人员、教师与学生，探索设计如何成为连接生态知识、社会创新与材料实验的桥梁。我们的项目涵盖从城市生态与生物多样性地图到公民科学工具、社区共创设计，以及生物区域生产与关怀系统等方向。我们将人类世（Anthropocene）视为挑战与契机并存的时代：既需要直面人类活动对环境的影响，也要探索在新的生态秩序中，人类如何以“共生者”而非“主宰者”的身份重新定位自己。 我们相信设计有能力培育一种生态文化——一种以互惠、共生与生命活力为核心的生活、生产与想象方式。我们的研究与实践以**“制作”与“物质化”为基础，长期与同济大学 Fablab O Shanghai**紧密合作，在数字制造、生物材料与原型实验中，探索科技与生态原则的融合。我们欢迎与来自设计、艺术、科学及社区的伙伴开展合作，共同原型化人与生命、物质与技术之间的新关系。 如有兴趣参与、合作或访问，请联系：ecologydesignlab@tongji.edu.cn —— 或者，直接来实验室坐坐，一起喝茶、聊设计、吃巧克力。
We are a design research lab within the College of Design and Innovation at Tongji University, Shanghai, dedicated to rethinking the relationship between nature, culture, and technology through the lens of design. Our work explores how design can move beyond the old dualism between Nature and Culture to reimagine the city as an ecosystem, where human activity and natural systems coexist, regenerate, and evolve together. The lab brings together researchers, students, and collaborators from multiple disciplines to investigate how design can act as a bridge between ecological knowledge, social innovation, and material experimentation. Our projects range from urban ecology and biodiversity mapping to citizen-science tools, participatory design for communities, and bioregional systems of production and care. We look at the Anthropocene as both a challenge and an opportunity — a moment to confront the consequences of human intervention while designing for a world where humans are participants rather than dominators of the ecosystem. We believe that design can cultivate an ecological culture: a way of living, producing, and imagining that values reciprocity, interdependence, and the shared vitality of all forms of life. Our practice is grounded in making and fabrication. We work closely with Fablab O Shanghai, where ideas take material form through digital fabrication, bio-materials, and prototyping methods that test how future technologies can align with ecological principles. We welcome collaborations with designers, artists, scientists, and communities who share a desire to prototype new relationships between life, matter, and technology. For visits, collaborations, or student projects, contact us at ecologydesignlab@tongji.edu.cn — or simply drop by the lab for tea, conversation, and chocolate.
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支持扩展名：.rar .zip .doc .docx .pdf .jpg .png .jpeg2025 声纹识别技术支持下的黄龙风景名胜区生物多样性时空格局监测研究
2024 同济大学全球重点合作伙伴培育计划专项 - 2024 校级 负责人
2020. NSFC Young Researcher “The contribute of Citizens Science to support Urban Nature and ecological literacy in Chinese cities, and its impact on ecological urbanisation in China”
2019. Horizon 2020 project T-Factor. H2020-SC5-2019-2. Unleashing future-facing urban hubs through culture and creativity-led strategies of transformative time
2019. 上海市设计学IV类高峰学科 / Gao Feng Peak Discipline Grant
2019. 高校2019年度重点引智项目 (“Cycles of Circulation: Carbon” 循环周期: 碳环)
2017. 上海市设计学IV类高峰学科 / individual project 大都市健康食品服务流通设计
2017. 上海市设计学IV类高峰学科 / team project 城市环境与社会创新设计研究团队
2018. DAAD Research Grant “Cities After Cars”
2018. KAS Research Grant "Cities After Cars"
Journals
(2025) Ma Y.; Wu D.; Valsecchi F.; Zhou H.; Xu J., Design Inspires Swirling Dialogues:A Case Study on Engaging Multiple Stakeholders in City Branding as a Learning Experience. Frontiers of Rural and Urban Planning FURP-D-25-00043
(2025) Valsecchi F., 陆文韬, 林子杰. 临时使用”城市更新的商业模式研究——以上海新华社区营造中心为例 [J]. 城市建筑, 2025. ISSN 1673-0232.
(2024) Papini, F., Mauri, M., & Valsecchi, F. (2024). From the Cloud to the Ground. A Data-Driven Research to Build Informative Heritage about Data Centres' Energy Footprint. PAD. Pages on Arts and Design, 17, 307–328. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13762745 ISSN: 1972-7887, 2024
(2023) Scarpitti C, Valsecchi F. For a Coexistence with the More-Than-Human: Making Biomaterials from a Philosophical Perspective. Sustainability. 2023; 15(6):5464. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065464
(2021) Scarpitti C., Valsecchi F., Pluriverse Skins. DIY bio-production for a post-anthropocentric coexistence. No. 75 (2021): diid disegno industriale industrial design https://www.diid.it/diid/index.php/diid/issue/view/diid75
Chapters
(2025）Valsecchi F., Douglas-Jones R. Data Logics Conversation 5. In: Wang C., Douglas-Jones R. (eds) Data Logics China. Six Conversations on Becoming Green, 2025 RSS Press & IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark
(2022). Green Exposure as a People-Centered Metric for Green Infrastructures: A Shanghai Case Study. Pfaender, F., Valsecchi, F., Sun, X., Chen, W. In: Cheshmehzangi, A. (eds) Green Infrastructure in Chinese Cities. Urban Sustainability. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9174-4_10 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-16-9174-4_10#rightslink
Conferences
(2025) Zhang Q., Valsecchi F. (2025) Avian Experience in Urban Grotto: Ecological Soundscapes as a Biosemiotic Methodology in Multispecies Ethnographic Research and More-than-human Communication. DesignNext. International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR) Proceeding, December 2025, Taipei
(2025) Valsecchi, F., Lu, W., Lin, Z. (2025). Ecological Activation in Participatory Temporary Urbanism: Values and Challenges from an Urban Regeneration Case in Shanghai. Ethical Leadership: A New Frontier for Design. Cumulus Conference Proceedings, Nantes 2025.
(2025) Chen, H., Valsecchi, F. (2025). A Moss-Supported Emotional Regeneration Kit: Posthumanism Speculative Design for More-than-human Sociality and Communities. Ethical Leadership: A New Frontier for Design. Cumulus Conference Proceedings, Nantes 2025.
(2024) Valsecchi, F. (2024). Trans-Cultural Innovation Between Societies and Nature. In: Design for Inter-Cultural Innovation: Cumulus Regional Seminar China 2024 Proceedings, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou. ISBN 978-952-7549-08-7.
(2024) Valsecchi, F., Chen, H., and Zhang, Q. (2024) Designing through ecological soundscape to foster human-nature interaction, in Gray, C., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.752
(2024) Francesca Valsecchi, Saverio Silli, Lu Wentao. 2024 Exploring Ecological Data with a Design-driven Approach. In Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS Companion ’24), July 01–05, 2024, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 3 pages.
(2024) Cao, Y., Gu, K., Ma, K., Valsecchi, F. Nature-Inspired and Nature-Relevant UI Models: A Demo from Exploring Bioluminescence Crowdsourced Data with a Design-Driven Approach. In: Fang, L., Pei, J., Zhai, G., Wang, R. (eds) Artificial Intelligence. CICAI 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 14474. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-9119-8_51
(2024) Valsecchi Francesca, Du Zhaoyang; A Playful Relationship Between Children and Insects Fostering Nature Connection Through Interaction Design. P/References of Design, Cumulus Conference Proceedings Budapest 2024, ISBN 978-952-7549-03-2
(2024) Sun Mingli, Han Siyuan, Elgersma Famkje Marijka, Valsecchi Francesca, Xu Xiaoqing; Collaborative Design for Urban Birds Driven by Birds' Acoustic Data Visualisation. Cumulus Conference Budapest Proceedings, 2024 P/References of Design, Cumulus Conference Proceedings Budapest 2024, ISBN 978-952-7549-03-2
(2024) Valsecchi, F., Pfaender F. Substantiated Spaces: the invisible geographies behind substances. Poster Presentation at ICPR Conference, Haarlem, The Netherlands, June 2024
(2024) Duan Wu, Haoyue Lei, Francesca Valsecchi, Yuze Song, Zixin Ren. Design-driven multi-subject participation in community placemaking: a case study of Yulin East Road Community in Chengdu. Narratives of Love, Cumulus Conference Proceedings, 11/2023 Beijing, Cumulus Conference Beijing, November 2023. ISSN 2490-046X ISBN 978-952-7549-01-8
(2024) Lu Wentao, Francesca Valsecchi, Saverio Silli. Assessing design projects of human-nature reconnection following a scientific theory of Nature Connectedness. Narratives of Love, Cumulus Conference Proceedings, 11/2023 Beijing, Cumulus Conference Beijing, November 2023. ISSN 2490-046X ISBN 978-952-7549-01-8
(2023) Bivalve Data Sculpture: data-driven design object to represent ecological knowledge.
2023. VINCI '23: Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3615522.3615575
(2023) Saverio Silli, Francesca Valsecchi. Integrating Electronic Circuit Design and Fabrication in a Design Studio: Discussing Hands-on Learning Approach to Engage Undergraduate Students in Ecologically Relevant Design. Proceedings of the Fab 23 Research Papers Stream, 47–61. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8171650 https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?pid=10.5281%2Fzenodo.8171650 (best paper award)
(2021) Francesca Valsecchi, Saverio Silli (2021) Urban Nature Fabrication: a framework for a practice-based teaching methodology of design for the Pluriverse. In: Gerhard Bruyns, Huaxin Wei (eds.), [ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes. Proceedings of the 9th Congress of the International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR 2021), Springer Nature, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4472-7
(2021) Francesca Valsecchi, Saverio Silli (2021) Leveraging on fabrication and making methodologies to support the development of ecological empathy. In: Gerhard Bruyns, Huaxin Wei (eds.), [ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes. Proceedings of the 9th Congress of the International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR 2021), Springer Nature, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4472-7
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