Cities are growing, and as they do, nature is shrinking. Urban rewilding can help: it improves biodiversity, manages water and heat, and benefits residents’ health. But people often perceive wilder green spaces in the city as neglect rather than intention. Without public acceptance, rewilding efforts are unlikely to succeed.

My Final Bachelor Project, based at TU/e within the Health and Inclusive Design squad, explored how design can improve that acceptance. The process followed the Design Thinking framework across six iterative cycles, combining literature research, fieldwork, observations, interviews, co-creation sessions, and prototype testing.

The result is Wildzoekers: a nature monitoring platform wrapped in an exploration game. Municipalities place 3D printed insect models with QR codes in rewilded spaces. Residents scan a code and are taken to the platform. There, they explore local vegetation through a quiz, watch a short video from the nature manager, and log their own insect observations, turning passersby into active participants while giving nature managers useful monitoring data.

Watch an explanatory video by clicking here or click the insects below to visit their individual pages.Really interested? Read the full report at the bottom of this page!

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