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What does it mean to collaborate with nature? In this talk, Alexandra Ionescu explores how creating the right conditions can allow living systems to emerge and regenerate in the places we inhabit. Drawing from her work in urban landscapes, she shares examples of nature-based solutions such as Miyawaki forests, floating wetlands, and a depaved sidewalk right in her neighborhood—projects that welcome biodiversity, support ecological processes, and reconnect communities with the web of life. Blending ecological practice, biomimicry, and artistic exploration, the talk reflects on how close observation, curiosity, and learning from nature—including species such as beavers, remarkable ecosystem engineers—can open new ways of seeing and relating to the living world. Students are invited to imagine how small, thoughtful actions can help restore ecosystems in cities and beyond, and what it means to collaborate with other species and natural cycles—the water cycle, the carbon cycle, and the nutrient cycle—along the way.

Alexandra Ionescu is the Associate Director of Regenerative Projects at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, where she leads the Miyawaki Forest Program and curated the inaugural 2025 Northeast Miniforest Summit. Her efforts focus on implementing nature-based solutions in urban settings, including floating wetlands that integrate art and ecological function through the Below and Above Collective, as well as urban afforestation using the Miyawaki Method. A lifelong student of how nature works, her approach—shaped by graduate education in Biomimicry—centers on cultivating the conditions for the web of life to emerge. Through photography, curated webinars and summits, and collaborative site- specific projects, she seeks to deepen human participation in dynamic ecological processes while restoring the ecology of place. Alongside her role as an ecological practitioner, she also works as an artist-researcher and is a Certified Biomimicry Professional.