(Un)Likely Connections between (Un)Likely Actors in the Art/NBS Co-Creation Process: Application of KREBS Cycle of Creativity to the Cyborg Garden Project

NBS provides the technical basis for adaptation to climate change, and co-creation is the vehicle for the co-production of knowledge and innovation, both forming a strong binomial for the UE Green Infrastructures Strategy. Nonetheless, one of the main challenges for the implementation of effective co-creation strategies is the incorporation of knowledge from diverse social systems. Knowledge production has been approached through different methodological models, such as the quintuple helix innovation by Carayannis, or the diffuse/expert knowledge model by Manzini. These theoretical models are based on linear knowledge transfers, without sufficiently depicting alternative knowledge flows among (un)conventional actors. In view of these limitations, the research proposes a third strategy: the KREBS cycle of creativity defined by Oxman is a conceptual map capable of describing knowledge transfers across the four modalities of human creativity (i.e., science, engineering, design, and art). Providing sufficient “creative energy” in a co-creation process would guarantee the successful production of knowledge. Thus, the research seeks to illuminate different co-creation strategies to promote “creative energy” in the design of the Cyborg Garden (CG) in Madrid, giving a novel application to Oxman’s methodological framework based on the Carayannis’s and Manzini’s models.