From trees grafted to grow as furniture, to the natural form of Heatherwick Studio’s Maggie’s Yorkshire, the many forms of nature-based design are championed in the Bio-Spaces exhibition at Roca London Gallery
Ever feel like you’re turning into a carbon accountant? Bio-Spaces, an exhibition on nature-based design at Roca London Gallery, might be just the antidote.
Curated by Planted in collaboration with biophilic design specialist Oliver Heath Design Studio, the exhibition is very much a call to action for, it says, ‘taking inspiration from the natural world, rather than just taking from it’. Rather than focus on just a carbon-counting approach, says Heath, who co-curated the exhibition with colleagues Victoria Jackson and Rosa Isaacs, the emphasis is on the creative opportunities that nature-based design can bring – not only to address the climate crisis but to promote greater health and wellbeing and greater equity.
‘We have an innate connection to nature that as a society we have, to a certain degree, denied since becoming more urbanised,’ said Heath, referring to the biophilic idea of humans’ instinctive affinity with nature.
‘Visionary architects are welcoming nature back in, realising there are mutualistic benefits for both humans and biodiversity.’
Heath believes there’s a real deficit in the understanding of nature-based design in architectural education. This despite many studies showing the positive impact biophilic design can have on learning, workplace productivity, healthcare outcomes and general wellbeing.
This exhibition helpfully demystifies the sometimes bamboozling array of terms associated with nature-based design. If you don’t already know your biomorphic design (imitation of natural forms and structures) from your biomimetic (emulation of biological processes and systems), you should do by the end of the show. These terms, along with biophilia, bio-regenerative design, bio-diversity and bio-based materials, each get their own section containing a short explanation, project examples and product samples.
Roca’s gallery, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, is an appropriate venue given that its design was inspired by the movement of water. In such an already distinctive gallery environment, the low-key exhibition design wisely lets the exhibits take centre stage. And there are plenty of extraordinary ones. Full Grown literally grows furniture by shaping and grafting trees into the desired shape over many years. In this way, its trees act as both ‘printer’ and material, as well as providing a habitat for wildlife.
There’s a very different kind of ‘tree’ within the Biodiversity section, 3D-printed by Blast Studio out of biomaterial made from discarded coffee cups, and intended as a habitat for wildlife. For those with limited space, Bioscape’s Wildpod Mini is a compact planter habitat envisaged for hedgehogs, bees and other creatures, while a salad-packed Growing Tower by Seedleaves demonstrates vertical farming. On a very different scale, Henning Larsen’s Biotope office development in Lille seeks to enhance biodiversity by inviting in birds, insects and lizards through the incorporation of extensively planted terraced gardens and balconies, as well as nesting boxes.
Grimshaw’s proposed Eden Project Morecambe and Heatherwick Studio’s Maggie’s Yorkshire are familiar natural form-inspired projects in the Biomorphic section. Some of the most intriguing exhibits, however, are in the Biomimetic area, which looks at designs that learn from nature’s systems. Lily Table, made of potato starch by Exploration Architecture, is inspired by an Amazonian water lily. Mario Cucinella Architects’ TECLA house is made of 3D-printed clay and inspired by the potter wasp, which builds nests out of mud. Perhaps most curious of all, EcoLogicStudio’s prototype air purifier uses algae to remove pollutants from air and then uses the biowaste from this process to 3D- print objects, such as stools.
The bio-based materials section gathers together an interesting selection of unusual products, including rainscreen made from Hemp and furniture made from Solidwool, a bio-resin created from unwanted wool from Lake District sheep, as well as products and projects using variously seaweed, mycelium and rammed earth. There are some alluring nature-based surfaces, including Organoid’s use of materials such as rose petals, cornflowers and moss within its products, and Foresso’s timber-chip terrazzo.
A bio-regenerative display aims to shift the focus from mitigation and ‘doing less bad’ to the ‘better’ of giving something back that’s positive. Exhibits include Phoenix, the proposed brownfield regenerative development in Lewes by developer Human Nature, which promises to prioritise people over cars and ‘create a productive and circular local economy’.
Heath hopes designers and architects will come away from this informative and optimistic exhibition ‘with a sense of inspiration that there are a number of bio-based design processes that can support their design approaches’.