Toward bio-inclusive urban design: a relational approach to co-existence

Ecological frameworks – such as Nature-based Solutions and Biophilic design – have advanced ecological thinking in urban planning and encouraged nature-connectedness, yet both focus on the utilitarian functions of nature. This externalisation and instrumentalisation of nature as a service provider sparingly acknowledges non-human agency in urban design. Through a targeted purposive scoping review, the paper maps conceptual gaps in these frameworks and explores more-than-human alternatives that support a bio-inclusive approach to urban design. Drawing on ecological empathy and animist awareness, and Freya Mathews’s concepts of conativity and least resistance, the paper argues that a relational understanding is required for an ontological shift to support multispecies co-existence. By conceptually linking ontological foundations with Freya Mathews’s concepts as operating principles, we propose five guiding principles that foreground ethical care, humans as actors, interdisciplinary interdependence, designing for entanglement and detachment, and including epistemological diversity. Together, these would help operationalise a bio-inclusive design framework that supports ecological reciprocity and symbiotic co-existence. The paper contributes to emerging discourse in post-anthropocentric urban planning, multispecies justice, and environmental ethics. It emphasises relationality through a conceptual foundation that can inform design education, policy, and practice.