Inter-Essere is a speculative project exploring the future of gastronomy through a multispecies lens. Starting from a broad trend research, the group narrowed toward an ecocentric vision in which food becomes a relational act between humans, plants, microbes, and ecosystems.

Context & Direction
This project was developed within the Design Futures course at Politecnico di Milano (A.A. 2025/2026), under the fictional innovation agency Gastronova — a direction focused on food technology, immersive dining, and the future of gastronomy. The brief invited us to explore emerging futures, starting with wide trend research and progressively sharpening toward a single scenario.

Trend Research & STEEP Analysis
The process began by mapping current trends across five dimensions — Society, Technology, Environment, Economy, and Politics. Trends were catalogued individually, then grouped into thematic clusters: multispecies design, consumption as political act, GRIN technology integration, and immersive nature. A STEEP diagram helped reveal intersections and tensions, with the multispecies relationship emerging as the most compelling design territory.

Domain Definition
From the analysis, two converging forces shaped our domain: an ecocentric perspective (challenging anthropocentrism, valuing ecosystems, pushing for social paradigm change) and enabling technology (sensing nature, responding to climate crisis, serving the ecosystem rather than optimizing for humans). Together, these defined our domain: Gastronomy as a Multispecies Narrative Ecosystem.

Scenario Building
Through a series of "What If" questions and a scenario matrix, we explored different futures along two axes — multispecies co-authorship vs. designed ecosystems, and technology as ecological mediator vs. pure efficiency. We selected Symbiotic Gastronomy as our focus: a future where food is not the result of human intention, but of spontaneous relationships between species. Technology makes these processes legible, not dominant.

The Scenario: Inter-Essere (2040)
By 2040, fifteen years of climate crises, water shortages, and collapsing industrial food systems have made it clear that human dominance over nature is unsustainable. The Inter-Essere movement emerges — a cultural and design paradigm that repositions humans as part of a web of species, rather than its center. Restaurants become living infrastructures: fermentation chambers, cultivation walls, and drying surfaces are integrated into the architecture as normal parts of the restaurant's life. The dish is no longer a designed object, but a biological event shaped by fungi, bacteria, soil, and season.

Characters & Physical Output
The scenario was populated with four fictional actors: a chef who coordinates living processes, an ecological mediator who translates nature's signals, a regenerative entrepreneur, and a political opponent representing institutional resistance. The final output was a physical installation presented at Politecnico — including posters, physical food models, a manifesto, sensory devices, and spatial props — staging the world of Inter-Essere as a tangible, experienceable scenario.