The term oikos is derived from the ancient Greek word for house or home, and is also the root of the term ecology. By multispecies, we refer to more-than-human lifeforms—mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, insects, plants, fungi, mosses, lichens and all other living macro and microorganisms with which we live in shared ecosystems.

OIKOS is a practical laboratory for speculative design and playful experimentation; a research group learning about traditional and Indigenous practices of vernacular architecture that support multispecies cohabitation; a network for creative practitioners and collectives working towards cohabitation and/or investigating how species are responding, evolving, adapting and being affected by human activities; and an initiative dedicated to cultivating a more-than-human ethics of care that promotes interspecies responsibility and mutual flourishing.

Art and design cannot effectively respond to the ecological crisis as long as it remains confined within galleries and the logic of the art market. OIKOS seeks a fundamental shift in how we define artistic practice and research by emphasising on-site praxis, collectivity, community and citizen science and educational projects.