About
Science-driven design for socio-ecological transitions
Our story
In 2009, a group of people from different worlds — marine biology, chemical engineering, interaction design, architecture — met in the basement of Medialab-Prado working on a shared problem: how to make visible the environmental consequences of everyday decisions. From that came projects combining life cycle data with interactive installations, transport visualizations with renewable energy research, environmental impact analysis with tools for citizens.
In 2015, that practice took a name: inViable. The name was a statement of intent — make viable what seems impossible, find the way where others see a wall. A creative scientific agency that integrated what the market kept separate: rigorous assessment with life cycle thinking, participatory design, and the building of digital tools.
After an intense first phase — an e-learning module for the UN environment program, a visualization tool for the European Cultural Foundation, citizen application prototypes, collaborations with design schools and architecture collectives — Inviable paused in 2017. The context didn't support it and partners focused on other professional projects.
In 2023 we returned with greater clarity. The problems that had mobilized us not only persisted: they had intensified. And we had learned something fundamental: that assessment without design is a report nobody uses, and that design without scientific foundation is good intentions without a compass. That digital tools only work if built with the communities that will use them. That each territory has its ecology, its actors, its urgencies — universal solutions don't exist.
Today we work at the frontier between science and action. In FARCLIMATE, we build a Transformation Hub so that European farm communities can design their own climate adaptation with a gender-transformative lens. In GREENSPIRE, launching in 2026, we'll develop eco-design frameworks based on product environmental footprint. We've designed museum scripts on Andean biodiversity, reviewed life cycle analysis methodologies for food chains, and accompanied Galician coastal communities in exploring regenerative bioeconomy models.
What connects all this is not a sector or a single methodology: it's an approach. Research with rigor, design with people, and build the tools so that knowledge becomes decisions. Within planetary boundaries, from the territory up.
We're still convinced that what seems inviable can be made viable — with the right science, the necessary creativity, and the right people.
Our approach
Four principles guide how we work — not what we do, but how we do it.
Accessible rigor
We don't simplify science — we make it tangible. Starting from the concrete to reach the complex, with cultural references that open the frame.
Constructive provocation
The name 'inViable' is already a provocation: making possible what seems impossible. We question established assumptions — but always with a proposal behind.
Territorial anchoring
Our work always lands in specific contexts: the Galician coast, the Andean Chocó, rural communities, European farming regions.
Systems thinking
Connections, flows, trade-offs. We see problems as systems, not isolated variables. Life cycle thinking is our methodological backbone.
Capabilities
Research & Assessment
Rigorous analysis grounded in life cycle thinking. We evaluate environmental, social, and economic impacts to reveal what matters most — and where to act first.
Strategy & Participatory Design
We design processes where knowledge becomes collective action. Stakeholder engagement, gender-transformative approaches, co-design — not as checkboxes, but as the way the work gets done.
Digital Tools & Visualization
Platforms, interfaces, and data visualizations that make knowledge actionable. We don't just analyze and recommend — we build the tools so communities can see, decide, and act.
Communication & Narrative
Making the complex tangible. From museum scripts on Andean biodiversity to data storytelling for European projects — science that people can actually use.
Key figures
Team
A small team by design. The people who think the project are the ones who deliver it.
Beatriz Rivela
LCA · Sustainability · Assessment
Chemical engineer specialized in Life Cycle Assessment and environmental impact analysis. She leads research direction and ensures scientific rigor across projects. Her work integrates sustainability science with territorial context, from European farming systems to Andean biodiversity.
Juan Freire
Strategy · Digital · Research
Marine biologist turned strategist. He designs participatory processes where knowledge becomes collective action. His work spans climate adaptation, territorial strategy, and digital innovation — always grounded in systems thinking and local context.
Sergio Galán
Software · UX · Visualization
Full-stack developer and UX designer. He translates complex environmental data into interfaces and visualizations that communities can understand and use. His work powers platforms like the FARCLIMATE Transformation Hub.
+ A network of project-specific collaborators in agroecology, architecture, cultural management, education, and marine science.
Ecosystem
Inviable grew out of Culturambiente, a non-profit we founded in 2009 to explore the intersection of science, art, and education. Culturambiente explored how environmental knowledge becomes cultural practice. That work taught us that rigorous science needs creative translation, that communities are the experts in their own contexts, and that the tools we build should be shaped by the people who will use them.
Eutika is our strategic partner for digital development. Led by Juan Freire, Eutika brings specialized technical capacity for building platforms, interfaces, and digital solutions. Inviable and Eutika coexist as separate brands serving complementary roles — Inviable for strategy and science integration, Eutika for digital execution.
Contactica
Fundación RIA
APRISCO
ICSEM
Recetas Urbanas
Eutika
Fundación TEC
Elisava