A groundbreaking approach in the field of sustainable, natural architecture. Using computing tools, the Oxman research group – led by Neri Oxman, an architect and designer, investigates the use of ecology and technology to realize the principles of sustainability on a human scale together with nature. The goal is to divert the built to the great and move from the world of the machine to the era of the natural organism.
Although you hear more and more about the concept of “green construction”, Oxman’s approach and directions are completely different. The field of construction and architecture is still conducted in a traditional way and architectural planning is at a crossroads: how to continue building for the sake of humanity – but work with and for nature at the same time.
Neri Oxman , Israeli-American architect, digital designer and artist. Studied architecture at the Technion and the Department of Medical Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She did her doctorate at MIT on Design Computation where she coined the term Material Ecology describing her field of research. Founded, managed, and today is a visiting professor at MIT’s MEDIA LABS, where they coined the name of the group and the basis of their work – Mediated Matter (a name with several meanings and the main, perhaps, translated into Hebrew – mediating matter). She connects computing, biology, sustainability and 3D printing.
Since 2020, Oxman has run her own laboratory, in Manhattan, USA. Her goal is to increase the connection between built, natural and biological environments by using design principles inspired by nature – for and with nature – and implementing them in the invention of new technologies. Areas of application include architectural design, product design, design Fashion, as well as new technologies for digital manufacturing and construction and creating flow over hardware, software and “wet tools”. All of these – according to Oxman, allow “design to empower science and science to empower design”.
Any new technology platform can be applied across a wide range of industries and scales—from consumer products to urban programs, from wearable drugs, from organisms to rockets. Hierarchical design at this scale makes it possible to build a library of tools and techniques that can be continuously improved for new applications and domains.
One must move from the world of the machine to the world of the natural organism. From objects, buildings and constructed streets – to build a dynamic, non-polluting, growing and biodegradable environment.
For demonstration: two unique projects (from a large collection of projects of different scales).
1. Aquahoja – pavilions, on a human scale, made of only natural molecular components.
Aquahoja is called “from water to water”. Water-based digital production. The digitally designed and robotically manufactured pavilions are made from some of the most common biopolymers on our planet: cellulose, found in the cell walls of plants; Chitosan, distilled from chitin found in crustacean exoskeletons; and pectin, which is found in the skin of ripe fruits such as apples.
Aguahoja embodies the eco-material design approach to material formation and decay. The variety of shapes and behaviors embodied in the structures reflects the way in which – from a minimal panel of molecular components – nature builds an extensive array of multi-purpose materials without the need for synthetic equivalents. Unlike steel and concrete, the biopolymers formed from organic materials are in constant dialogue with their ecological niches and are able to dynamically adapt to changing environmental conditions.
Through Aguahoja, Oxman offers a way to temporarily divert these organic materials from natural resource cycles, augment them with precise physical properties, and shape them into functional designs before allowing them to decay in a controlled manner. Combined in different ratios, they form the building blocks for 3D-printable biocements with tunable material properties, and can be made to break down or persist over time.
2. Pavilion spun by silkworms 2020
How can the human species cooperate with other species such as silkworms in building objects, products and structures? Is it possible to produce silk without boiling the cocoons?
For the Material Ecology exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, a six-meter-high and five-meter-wide Silk Pavilion II was erected. Based on research developed by the Mediated Matter group in 2014 at MIT. This project faces challenges related to scale and serial growth. The project uses a kind of large needle, an integrated kinetic mandrel designed to guide the natural spinning motion of silkworms through clockwise rotation, fusion technology and biology to unify weaving and spinning.
Video – Construction of the silk pavilion by silkworms