Embodied Intelligence | Technology, agency and the future of design

In this conversation, Behnaz Farahi articulates a deeply human vision of design at the intersection of body, technology, and environment. Rooted in her early experiences in Tehran and shaped by questions of visibility, control, and care, her work spans responsive garments, kinetic surfaces, immersive installations, and autonomous fabrication systems for extreme environments. Across scales, from cloth to architecture to extraterrestrial habitats, Farahi’s practice is driven by a single, enduring inquiry: how can design help us feel safer, freer, and more fully ourselves in our bodies?

Using computation, robotics, and interactive materials, Farahi reclaims technologies often associated with surveillance and control, redirecting them toward empathy, consent, and relational awareness. Her work reframes sensing environments not as tools of monitoring, but as partners in dialogue, capable of responding to presence without extracting or storing personal data. Motion, material behavior, and affect become a shared language, legible across cultures through the body’s intuitive understanding of change, rhythm, and response.

Farahi’s research with NASA further extends this thinking, positioning architectural design as a life-support interface rather than a static container. Whether designing micro-scale wearable systems or large-scale robotic habitats built from local resources, she approaches material intelligence as an active collaborator, allowing form to emerge from forces, constraints, and context.

Aligned with IFI’s mission to advance design as a force for quality of life worldwide, this dialogue foregrounds the responsibilities designers must assume as intelligent, adaptive environments become commonplace. Farahi advocates for humility, cultural awareness, and the placement of agency with people rather than algorithms, ensuring that future environments support life, dignity, and care rather than quiet control.