Exhibition: Exploration Architecture: Designing with Nature

A striking 3D printed installation showcases a selection of four projects and prototypes from the studio’s cutting-edge research on sustainable, nature-inspired design, including two new, previously unpublished designs. Study models, sketches and specially commissioned short films introducing Exploration’s projects are presented alongside a myriad of natural specimens that inspired the designs – offering unique insight into the studio’s practice of learning from nature in order to deliver future-facing solutions for architecture, systems design and materials production that address the major challenges of our age.

Showcasing Exploration’s working philosophy and embracing 3D printing’s capacity for radically increased resource efficiency, the exhibition’s central installation takes the form of a long sweeping display designed to showcase innovative SKO software – a structural optimisation computer programme based on the adaptive growth patterns of trees and bones – and has been created with support from large-scale 3D printing pioneer Lukas Oehmigen of BigRep and Ultimaker.

At a time when architecture and society more broadly urgently need to reconsider their relationship to the natural world and move towards a more ecologically sustainable future, the exhibition offers a timely showcase of biomimicry, and the innovative approach to design and resource use it offers. The Architecture Foundation is delighted to be partnering with Interface, a pioneer in applying biomimicry to industrial design challenges, as a headline sponsor for this exciting exhibition that will present this emerging design discipline to a UK audience.

The exhibition is accompanied by a public programme of events expanding on the themes of the exhibition, including a headline event featuring Exploration Director Michael Pawlyn, as well as broader debate exploring wider questions about the relationship between science, mathematics and the natural world.