Innovation & Technology Product Design
Aela Norris
I belive that design is all encompassing and intrinsically human. As a designer I am driven by curiosity and excitement, focusing my practice on ideas that heighten the significance of lived experience, history and culture.
Häven // Multispecies Habitat for Urban Populations
Building on a group project imagining rural Scotland, 10 years after global mass urbanisation, my individual project explored the future of multi-species living in cities. In this future, urban life dominates, prioritising human experience while rural areas remain shaped by increasingly disconnected, biodiversity-poor cities.
My project asks: what if biodiversity collapses nationwide? How would cities respond, and how could we prevent it? I propose a system of temperature-controlled pods that support hibernating species, protecting them from increasingly erratic weather. Powered by solar and thermal energy, the pods maintain stable conditions to prevent premature waking, a growing threat due to climate change.
Placed strategically to create urban nature paths, these pods provide habitat and safe passage for multiple species, helping biodiversity thrive in cities, not just rural areas. Designed for all hibernators, from ladybugs to hedgehogs, the system also collects data on species habits and migration to inform future urban ecology. Made from sustainable, repairable materials like terracotta, wood chips, and recycled copper, the pods offer a long-lasting solution to urban biodiversity loss.
Pigeon Project // Re-Imagining Memory and Documentation
Pigeon is a brand that reimagines how we document our lives. It explores the relationship between time, memory, gratification and authenticity.
This project emerged from my research into understanding how our relationship with photography is changing as it becomes a tool for appreciating moments and preserving experiences. This project exists as a response to encourage slowness and introspection. I aimed to re-evaluate the role of documentation and how can we engage more meaningfully with the objects and moments we collect.
We live in a time where over 57,000 photos are taken every second, documenting our lives has become habitual and often thoughtless. We capture endlessly, yet rarely pause to reflect on what we’re preserving. Rather than reject this, Pigeon exists as an alternative, encouraging intentionality and helping us engage with photography as a deliberate, sensory experience.
Users receive a pinhole camera and are invited to document their lives slowly, creating a personal archive. Once the photos are sent for processing, they are gradually returned to the user, reframed as pieces of art and precious tangible memories. Over a ten-year period, at random intervals, the user will receive a photo. Because the process is fully analog, the results are unexpected and authentic.
This project uses time as a tool for appreciation, heightening the moment when forgotten memories are reawoken. It reconnects the user with moments they once chose to capture, giving those memories a sense of significance. The experience is a testament to patience, trust, and slowness, a quiet confidence in the documenter, the process, and in time itself.
