Richard James MacCowan

Richard is an award-winning multi-disciplinary designer and works worldwide on urbanism, manufacturing, and agricultural projects. He has a background in international real estate investment and development and sustainable design, combining this with behavioural science and nature-inspired design.

Richard loves to explore fresh ideas and concepts and is ever curious about the environment around him. Richard’s passion is developing new models of innovation to reduce costs, improve efficiency and resilience in the design and manufacturing process. He has taught at some of the top design schools in the world, such as The Royal College of Art (UK), The Pratt Institute (USA), Vellore Institute of Technology (India), and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary).

Richard is also the founder of the non-profit Biomimicry UK and an equine technology startup, Smart Stable Limited. He combines this with extensive research development with international collaborators via the Design Society, ISO Standards in Biomimetics, Royal Society of the Arts, and the Bessemer Society.

The current initiatives of Biomimicry Innovation Lab involve the development and delivery of investment into UK-based scientific research and development, with a focus on nature-inspired innovation and the circular economy. Working in tandem with the Nadathur Group to deliver this initiative, the aim put the UK at the forefront of nature-inspired innovation. Internally, they have developed a model to understand the value of ecosystems and the environment across the manufacturing and production process value chain.

Richard is an internationally renowned keynote speaker on biomimicry, innovation and sustainability from cosmetics through to superyacht design. Richard enjoys spending time with his family, and in his spare time playing basketball and rugby (both poorly), and tending to his houseplants.