Latest news with #DesignMuseum
Forbes
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
New Materials And Design Made With Other Species In Mind
Most products are designed for humans. Electronic devices, houses, furniture, cars and fashion are all designed to make our lives easier or more interesting, but they usually don't take other species into account. There are some exceptions, though. For example, products made with mycelium benefit the planet as a whole and not just the people who use the products. And gardens, which used to be designed only for humans to enjoy, are increasingly taking pollinators into account as well. Designing for the planet rather than just for humans requires a bit of a different way of thinking, and often taps into the latest science as well. Artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg created a large display for the Design Museum, showing a ... More pollinator's view of a garden, generated by her garden design tool. In 2020, artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg was commissioned by the Eden Project to design something for their gardens. The Eden Project educates people about plants and nature through their biospheres and outdoor areas. To fit in with the theme, Ginsberg worked on making a garden for pollinators, using an algorithm that designs custom pollinator gardens for different locations. The garden design tool can show what the garden would look like to humans and to pollinators, like bees, which see colours in a completely different way. Museum focuses on design beyond humans A large version of one of these pollinator views is now shown at the Design Museum in London, as part of their new exhibit 'More Than Human', which opens today. Ginsberg also made the algorithm available for others to use, and children of a school local to the museum used this to design their own pollinator garden which can be visited at St Mary Abbots Gardens in Kensington, London. Ginsberg was one of four Future Observatory fellows. This is the Design Museum's research program that focuses on transition to a more sustainable world. Other Future Observatory fellows that created new work for the 'More Than Human' exhibit are Paulo Tavares, Feifei Zhou and César Rodríguez-Garavito. Besides newly commissioned work, the exhibit also includes older projects that fit the theme of designing for nature and the planet. One of my personal favourite things at the exhibit is a series of framed pages from a proposal for a 'dolphin embassy'. In 1974, architects designed an underwater research station where people would be able to communicate with dolphins. It was never built, because understanding dolphin language was never a research priority, but the whole project just feels very 1970s in its inspiration and enthusiasm. Design for and by other species More recent design projects seem to have much more practical applications, especially the ones that the 'More Than Human' exhibit groups under the theme 'Making with the world'. For example, biodesign lab Faber Futures designed a jacket made with silk that was dyed by bacteria. The soil bacteria Streptomyces coelicolor secrete colors that create patterns on the fabric, so they're essentially co-creating with humans. A table made with mycelium, designed and created by Bento Architecture. Also on display is a table and stool created by Bento Architecture, and made out of mycelium. This material is a fungus root structure that can be grown into all kinds of custom shapes and has a lot of potential as low-carbon building material. There have been many designs made with mycelium over the past few years and I've written previously about the way that artists and designers are essentially experimenting with the way that the material can be used while researchers are studying it at a more molecular and fundamental level. The 'More Than Human' exhibit is at the Design Museum in London until October 5th, 2025. It's the kind of exhibit that makes you realise that humans are just another animal in the ecosystem. Often, these sorts of exhibits that merge science and art are in science-centric museums or educational institutions. It's good to see this topic get attention at the Design Museum, where it might find a new audience inspired to think about the planet in the context of design.
CNN
a day ago
- Science
- CNN
Bees are vital to the planet, but they're in decline. What can be done?
'If pollinators designed gardens, what would humans see?' Over a video call, the London-based artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is talking about 'Pollinator Pathway,' an online tool she developed that allows users to design gardens for the benefit of pollinating insects, such as bees — many species of which are facing extinction. The planting designs are generated using an algorithm that prioritizes flowering plants that pollinators like to feed on, and the project has resulted in flower-filled gardens around the world, which Ginsberg calls 'living artworks.' The project is one of many on show at 'More than Human,' an exhibition at the Design Museum in London, running until October 5. Exploring the interconnected relationship between humans and animals, plants and other living beings, the exhibition showcases ideas for how to live in better harmony with the natural world. Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, wasps and hummingbirds, are essential for maintaining biodiversity and the health of the Earth's ecosystems. As they move between flowers, to collect nectar for food, they unintentionally transfer pollen along the way, enabling the plants to reproduce. According to the United Nations, a third of the world's food production depends on pollinators like bees. But bee populations have been declining. In the US, the National Agriculture Statistics Service reported a reduction from 5.9 million honey-producing bee colonies in 1947 to 2.44 million in 2008. Between June 2024 and February 2025, US commercial beekeepers reported a 62% loss of their managed honeybee colonies. 'One of the main causes of declines (of pollinators) is landscape change and the decline of flowers in anthropogenic landscapes,' said Harland Patch, an assistant research professor in the department of entomology at Pennsylvania State University and co-author of 'The Lives of Bees.' Scientists attribute the loss of natural, biodiverse habitat to climate change, pollution, pesticides and human-driven development. One of the key ways to support bees is ensuring they have a diverse array of flowers to feed on. Architects and designers, in response, have begun to plant 'pollinator-friendly' gardens. The 'Alusta' pavilion from Finnish architecture practice Suomi/Koivisto, also showcased at 'More than Human,' is a temporary structure and garden created in Helsinki in 2022. 'We contacted a group of ecology researchers to ask if it's possible to invite pollinators onto a paved parking lot in the center of Helsinki,' said co-founder Maiju Suomi over a video call. 'They said yes, if you choose the right plants.' With help from the ecologists, Suomi/Koivisto selected pollinator-friendly plants — such as cowslip, lemon thyme, wild strawberry, and hyssop — and arranged them around a pavilion made of clay blocks. 'We wanted to make a space to represent how our fates are entangled with non-human species,' said Suomi. 'If they don't survive, we don't survive either.' Working on a project like this, she added, 'you start understanding how we as designers can make decisions that support those relationships rather than break them.' At the Arboretum at Penn State University, a park and botanical garden complex, a special Pollinator and Bird Garden was created in 2021 to attract local pollinating insects and birds. Designed by Didier Design Studio, Claudia West and Phyto Studio, the garden features flowering plants including goldenrods, native mountain mint, and fennel. The designers organized the planting to ensure it looked beautiful while fulfilling a scientific purpose. One of the aims of the garden is to inspire visitors to do their own pollinator-friendly planting, if they have the resources. 'The primary rule is plant as many flowering plants as you can,' said Patch, the research scientist from Penn State, who is also director of pollinator programming at the Arboretum. 'Start plant clubs and get your neighbors, your town, to do the same. In the 21st century, we should be shocked if a neighborhood is not filled with flowers.' As well as flowers to feed on, designers have created innovative homes for bees to shelter and nest in, hoping to help them survive. While beehives — manmade structures within which honeybees can nest and produce honey — have been created for millennia, designs continue to develop. At this year's Milan Design Week, a new beehive called 'Host' was unveiled by London-based industrial design studio Layer in collaboration with Spanish furniture manufacturer Andreu World. The modular design, in timber, metal and straw, evolves the typical beehive model of stacked boxes. 'We analyzed existing beehives and saw some opportunities to improve them,' said Layer founder Benjamin Hubert over a video call. The 'Host' design features efficient ventilation and rain coverage, as well as straw insulation around the brood chamber to keep the bees warmer in cold temperatures — all to improve the beehive's 'livability,' Hubert said. French artist and designer Marlene Huissoud created a special beehive at the SFER IK Museum in Mexico for the Melipona bee, a local species facing population decline. The beehive, named 'Mama,' resembles a dynamic group of tree trunks. 'It's like a tree that has different channels, and each one has a different swarm of bees living inside,' explained Huissoud over a video call. She collaborated with a local beekeeper to design a structure that would be 'comfortable' for the bees, giving them maximum privacy from human onlookers. Huissoud's father was a beekeeper, instilling in her as she grew up a fascination with the insects. 'Living with bees really sparked my interest,' she said. Many of Huissoud's pieces are designed as habitats for bees and other pollinators, and her 'Please Stand By' chair in clay, dotted with holes for insects to nest in, is on show at 'More than Human.' All of our design decisions that are not combatting climate change, are making the living conditions of all non-humans and humans worse. Maiju Suomi, co-founder of the architecture practice Suomi/Koivisto Beehives are only for honeybees, however, which represent only a small portion of the approximately 20,000 bee species globally. Many species are solitary, meaning they like to nest alone. So-called 'bee hotels' use bundles of hollow canes or wooden logs drilled with holes, within birdhouse-like wooden structures, to recreate the natural habitats that solitary bees like to nest in. Versions populate many gardens and parks all over the world, including the Arboretum at Penn State. In 2020, Copenhagen-based designer Tanita Klein teamed up with design studio Bakken & Bæck and Space10, IKEA's former research and design lab, to create 'Bee Home,' a modular, Tetris-like bee hotel design in timber. As an open-source parametric design, users can use an online tool to select the size, height and style that suits their taste, and download the design files for fabrication. The resulting structures resemble miniature city towers in wood, patterned with window-like holes for nesting in. Specially designed hole-studded architectural bricks (dubbed as 'bee bricks') can be used in building exteriors or garden walls to provide nesting opportunities for solitary bees. In the English city of Brighton, such bee bricks have been made a necessary condition of planning approval for most new buildings. Suomi, the architect from Suomi/Koivisto, sees 'direct' design interventions such as these as important, but also points to the ways in which designers can support bees and other pollinators through 'indirect' actions. 'Climate change alters the living conditions for all living beings, making them worse in most cases, and accelerating the loss of biodiversity,' she said. 'All of our design decisions that are not combatting climate change, are making the living conditions of all non-humans and humans worse.'
CNN
a day ago
- Science
- CNN
Bees are vital to the planet, but they're in decline. What can be done?
'If pollinators designed gardens, what would humans see?' Over a video call, the London-based artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is talking about 'Pollinator Pathway,' an online tool she developed that allows users to design gardens for the benefit of pollinating insects, such as bees — many species of which are facing extinction. The planting designs are generated using an algorithm that prioritizes flowering plants that pollinators like to feed on, and the project has resulted in flower-filled gardens around the world, which Ginsberg calls 'living artworks.' The project is one of many on show at 'More than Human,' an exhibition at the Design Museum in London, running until October 5. Exploring the interconnected relationship between humans and animals, plants and other living beings, the exhibition showcases ideas for how to live in better harmony with the natural world. Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, wasps and hummingbirds, are essential for maintaining biodiversity and the health of the Earth's ecosystems. As they move between flowers, to collect nectar for food, they unintentionally transfer pollen along the way, enabling the plants to reproduce. According to the United Nations, a third of the world's food production depends on pollinators like bees. But bee populations have been declining. In the US, the National Agriculture Statistics Service reported a reduction from 5.9 million honey-producing bee colonies in 1947 to 2.44 million in 2008. Between June 2024 and February 2025, US commercial beekeepers reported a 62% loss of their managed honeybee colonies. 'One of the main causes of declines (of pollinators) is landscape change and the decline of flowers in anthropogenic landscapes,' said Harland Patch, an assistant research professor in the department of entomology at Pennsylvania State University and co-author of 'The Lives of Bees.' Scientists attribute the loss of natural, biodiverse habitat to climate change, pollution, pesticides and human-driven development. One of the key ways to support bees is ensuring they have a diverse array of flowers to feed on. Architects and designers, in response, have begun to plant 'pollinator-friendly' gardens. The 'Alusta' pavilion from Finnish architecture practice Suomi/Koivisto, also showcased at 'More than Human,' is a temporary structure and garden created in Helsinki in 2022. 'We contacted a group of ecology researchers to ask if it's possible to invite pollinators onto a paved parking lot in the center of Helsinki,' said co-founder Maiju Suomi over a video call. 'They said yes, if you choose the right plants.' With help from the ecologists, Suomi/Koivisto selected pollinator-friendly plants — such as cowslip, lemon thyme, wild strawberry, and hyssop — and arranged them around a pavilion made of clay blocks. 'We wanted to make a space to represent how our fates are entangled with non-human species,' said Suomi. 'If they don't survive, we don't survive either.' Working on a project like this, she added, 'you start understanding how we as designers can make decisions that support those relationships rather than break them.' At the Arboretum at Penn State University, a park and botanical garden complex, a special Pollinator and Bird Garden was created in 2021 to attract local pollinating insects and birds. Designed by Didier Design Studio, Claudia West and Phyto Studio, the garden features flowering plants including goldenrods, native mountain mint, and fennel. The designers organized the planting to ensure it looked beautiful while fulfilling a scientific purpose. One of the aims of the garden is to inspire visitors to do their own pollinator-friendly planting, if they have the resources. 'The primary rule is plant as many flowering plants as you can,' said Patch, the research scientist from Penn State, who is also director of pollinator programming at the Arboretum. 'Start plant clubs and get your neighbors, your town, to do the same. In the 21st century, we should be shocked if a neighborhood is not filled with flowers.' As well as flowers to feed on, designers have created innovative homes for bees to shelter and nest in, hoping to help them survive. While beehives — manmade structures within which honeybees can nest and produce honey — have been created for millennia, designs continue to develop. At this year's Milan Design Week, a new beehive called 'Host' was unveiled by London-based industrial design studio Layer in collaboration with Spanish furniture manufacturer Andreu World. The modular design, in timber, metal and straw, evolves the typical beehive model of stacked boxes. 'We analyzed existing beehives and saw some opportunities to improve them,' said Layer founder Benjamin Hubert over a video call. The 'Host' design features efficient ventilation and rain coverage, as well as straw insulation around the brood chamber to keep the bees warmer in cold temperatures — all to improve the beehive's 'livability,' Hubert said. French artist and designer Marlene Huissoud created a special beehive at the SFER IK Museum in Mexico for the Melipona bee, a local species facing population decline. The beehive, named 'Mama,' resembles a dynamic group of tree trunks. 'It's like a tree that has different channels, and each one has a different swarm of bees living inside,' explained Huissoud over a video call. She collaborated with a local beekeeper to design a structure that would be 'comfortable' for the bees, giving them maximum privacy from human onlookers. Huissoud's father was a beekeeper, instilling in her as she grew up a fascination with the insects. 'Living with bees really sparked my interest,' she said. Many of Huissoud's pieces are designed as habitats for bees and other pollinators, and her 'Please Stand By' chair in clay, dotted with holes for insects to nest in, is on show at 'More than Human.' All of our design decisions that are not combatting climate change, are making the living conditions of all non-humans and humans worse. Maiju Suomi, co-founder of the architecture practice Suomi/Koivisto Beehives are only for honeybees, however, which represent only a small portion of the approximately 20,000 bee species globally. Many species are solitary, meaning they like to nest alone. So-called 'bee hotels' use bundles of hollow canes or wooden logs drilled with holes, within birdhouse-like wooden structures, to recreate the natural habitats that solitary bees like to nest in. Versions populate many gardens and parks all over the world, including the Arboretum at Penn State. In 2020, Copenhagen-based designer Tanita Klein teamed up with design studio Bakken & Bæck and Space10, IKEA's former research and design lab, to create 'Bee Home,' a modular, Tetris-like bee hotel design in timber. As an open-source parametric design, users can use an online tool to select the size, height and style that suits their taste, and download the design files for fabrication. The resulting structures resemble miniature city towers in wood, patterned with window-like holes for nesting in. Specially designed hole-studded architectural bricks (dubbed as 'bee bricks') can be used in building exteriors or garden walls to provide nesting opportunities for solitary bees. In the English city of Brighton, such bee bricks have been made a necessary condition of planning approval for most new buildings. Suomi, the architect from Suomi/Koivisto, sees 'direct' design interventions such as these as important, but also points to the ways in which designers can support bees and other pollinators through 'indirect' actions. 'Climate change alters the living conditions for all living beings, making them worse in most cases, and accelerating the loss of biodiversity,' she said. 'All of our design decisions that are not combatting climate change, are making the living conditions of all non-humans and humans worse.'
CNN
a day ago
- Science
- CNN
Bees are vital to the planet, but they're in decline. What can be done?
'If pollinators designed gardens, what would humans see?' Over a video call, the London-based artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is talking about 'Pollinator Pathway,' an online tool she developed that allows users to design gardens for the benefit of pollinating insects, such as bees — many species of which are facing extinction. The planting designs are generated using an algorithm that prioritizes flowering plants that pollinators like to feed on, and the project has resulted in flower-filled gardens around the world, which Ginsberg calls 'living artworks.' The project is one of many on show at 'More than Human,' an exhibition at the Design Museum in London, running until October 5. Exploring the interconnected relationship between humans and animals, plants and other living beings, the exhibition showcases ideas for how to live in better harmony with the natural world. Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, wasps and hummingbirds, are essential for maintaining biodiversity and the health of the Earth's ecosystems. As they move between flowers, to collect nectar for food, they unintentionally transfer pollen along the way, enabling the plants to reproduce. According to the United Nations, a third of the world's food production depends on pollinators like bees. But bee populations have been declining. In the US, the National Agriculture Statistics Service reported a reduction from 5.9 million honey-producing bee colonies in 1947 to 2.44 million in 2008. Between June 2024 and February 2025, US commercial beekeepers reported a 62% loss of their managed honeybee colonies. 'One of the main causes of declines (of pollinators) is landscape change and the decline of flowers in anthropogenic landscapes,' said Harland Patch, an assistant research professor in the department of entomology at Pennsylvania State University and co-author of 'The Lives of Bees.' Scientists attribute the loss of natural, biodiverse habitat to climate change, pollution, pesticides and human-driven development. One of the key ways to support bees is ensuring they have a diverse array of flowers to feed on. Architects and designers, in response, have begun to plant 'pollinator-friendly' gardens. The 'Alusta' pavilion from Finnish architecture practice Suomi/Koivisto, also showcased at 'More than Human,' is a temporary structure and garden created in Helsinki in 2022. 'We contacted a group of ecology researchers to ask if it's possible to invite pollinators onto a paved parking lot in the center of Helsinki,' said co-founder Maiju Suomi over a video call. 'They said yes, if you choose the right plants.' With help from the ecologists, Suomi/Koivisto selected pollinator-friendly plants — such as cowslip, lemon thyme, wild strawberry, and hyssop — and arranged them around a pavilion made of clay blocks. 'We wanted to make a space to represent how our fates are entangled with non-human species,' said Suomi. 'If they don't survive, we don't survive either.' Working on a project like this, she added, 'you start understanding how we as designers can make decisions that support those relationships rather than break them.' At the Arboretum at Penn State University, a park and botanical garden complex, a special Pollinator and Bird Garden was created in 2021 to attract local pollinating insects and birds. Designed by Didier Design Studio, Claudia West and Phyto Studio, the garden features flowering plants including goldenrods, native mountain mint, and fennel. The designers organized the planting to ensure it looked beautiful while fulfilling a scientific purpose. One of the aims of the garden is to inspire visitors to do their own pollinator-friendly planting, if they have the resources. 'The primary rule is plant as many flowering plants as you can,' said Patch, the research scientist from Penn State, who is also director of pollinator programming at the Arboretum. 'Start plant clubs and get your neighbors, your town, to do the same. In the 21st century, we should be shocked if a neighborhood is not filled with flowers.' As well as flowers to feed on, designers have created innovative homes for bees to shelter and nest in, hoping to help them survive. While beehives — manmade structures within which honeybees can nest and produce honey — have been created for millennia, designs continue to develop. At this year's Milan Design Week, a new beehive called 'Host' was unveiled by London-based industrial design studio Layer in collaboration with Spanish furniture manufacturer Andreu World. The modular design, in timber, metal and straw, evolves the typical beehive model of stacked boxes. 'We analyzed existing beehives and saw some opportunities to improve them,' said Layer founder Benjamin Hubert over a video call. The 'Host' design features efficient ventilation and rain coverage, as well as straw insulation around the brood chamber to keep the bees warmer in cold temperatures — all to improve the beehive's 'livability,' Hubert said. French artist and designer Marlene Huissoud created a special beehive at the SFER IK Museum in Mexico for the Melipona bee, a local species facing population decline. The beehive, named 'Mama,' resembles a dynamic group of tree trunks. 'It's like a tree that has different channels, and each one has a different swarm of bees living inside,' explained Huissoud over a video call. She collaborated with a local beekeeper to design a structure that would be 'comfortable' for the bees, giving them maximum privacy from human onlookers. Huissoud's father was a beekeeper, instilling in her as she grew up a fascination with the insects. 'Living with bees really sparked my interest,' she said. Many of Huissoud's pieces are designed as habitats for bees and other pollinators, and her 'Please Stand By' chair in clay, dotted with holes for insects to nest in, is on show at 'More than Human.' All of our design decisions that are not combatting climate change, are making the living conditions of all non-humans and humans worse. Maiju Suomi, co-founder of the architecture practice Suomi/Koivisto Beehives are only for honeybees, however, which represent only a small portion of the approximately 20,000 bee species globally. Many species are solitary, meaning they like to nest alone. So-called 'bee hotels' use bundles of hollow canes or wooden logs drilled with holes, within birdhouse-like wooden structures, to recreate the natural habitats that solitary bees like to nest in. Versions populate many gardens and parks all over the world, including the Arboretum at Penn State. In 2020, Copenhagen-based designer Tanita Klein teamed up with design studio Bakken & Bæck and Space10, IKEA's former research and design lab, to create 'Bee Home,' a modular, Tetris-like bee hotel design in timber. As an open-source parametric design, users can use an online tool to select the size, height and style that suits their taste, and download the design files for fabrication. The resulting structures resemble miniature city towers in wood, patterned with window-like holes for nesting in. Specially designed hole-studded architectural bricks (dubbed as 'bee bricks') can be used in building exteriors or garden walls to provide nesting opportunities for solitary bees. In the English city of Brighton, such bee bricks have been made a necessary condition of planning approval for most new buildings. Suomi, the architect from Suomi/Koivisto, sees 'direct' design interventions such as these as important, but also points to the ways in which designers can support bees and other pollinators through 'indirect' actions. 'Climate change alters the living conditions for all living beings, making them worse in most cases, and accelerating the loss of biodiversity,' she said. 'All of our design decisions that are not combatting climate change, are making the living conditions of all non-humans and humans worse.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Science
- The Guardian
More than Human review – a utopia of self-weaving grass and psychedelic dolphins
'Even when humans get serious about wanting to talk to dolphins, will dolphins have anything to say to us?' So pondered an issue of Esquire magazine in 1975. 'The only reliable way to find out,' it concluded, 'will be to build a Dolphin Embassy and look for the response.' The pages that followed were devoted to a fantastical vision, created by the avant-garde architecture collective, Ant Farm. They proposed a floating multi-species utopia where humans and dolphins could mingle in a watery fantasy, communicating through telepathy. The triangular vessel featured a land-water living room, with chutes enabling dolphins to swim between floors, as well as a shared navigation pod, where one day an 'electronic-fluidic interface' would allow both humans and dolphins to steer the ship. The hope was that technological advances would make the project buildable by the 1990s. 'Thus far,' the article noted, 'no backers have come forward.' Fifty years on, there is still no delphinid mission, but Ant Farm's acid-induced drawings are on display in the Design Museum, as part of an exhibition about current designers' attempts to work with and for the 'more than human' world. Today's young architects might no longer be communing with their animal clients through psychedelics (alas!), but a whole new generation is engaging with the natural world once again, in the realisation that it's not enough to mitigate the human impact on the planet: we must actively design for other species to flourish. The resulting show is an intriguing, if sometimes opaque, foray into numerous experiments and 'collaborations' with nature, from fungal facades to fabrics grown from grass roots. Some are realistic proposals that have been put into action, while (too many) others occupy the realms of fantasy or conceptual art. But a good deal of exhibits will make you think again, and contemplate your relationship with everything from spiders and seaweed, to wasps and worms. Architect Andrés Jaque, who recently sprayed a school in Spain with a globular coating of insect and fungi-friendly cork, is back with an even more wildlife-welcoming facade. His 'transspecies rosette', a sample of a new cladding system made of pulverised cork and natural resin, features deep clefts and niches to encourage life to take hold, while providing waterproof insulation for the building. Modernism might have led to a wipe-clean world of sleek, seamless surfaces (all that high-rise glass resulting in accidental bird massacres), but Jaque's work suggests that more-than-human-centric design could lead to much more interesting, knobbly kinds of architecture. Does a bio-gothic future await? Nearby, Kate Orff of landscape architecture firm Scape, presents her more pragmatic Bird-Safe Building Guidelines, showing how the differences between human and avian vision could be turned to advantage. By applying films, glass can be made to look opaque to birds, while remaining transparent to humans. This simple measure could save a billion bird deaths a year, in the US alone. There are a handful of practical solutions like this scattered throughout the exhibition, but at several points in the show you feel like reminding the curators their remit is design, not art. There are a few too many space-filling installations, like Julia Lohmann's Kelp Council, which looks like a series of couture dresses fashioned from seaweed, dangling in a circle, set to a bubbling backdrop of oceanic sounds. 'If we consider that all living things have their own needs and agency,' offers a caption, 'we might ask: what does seaweed think of us?' Quoth the kelp: 'Do better.' Other projects seem promising, until you realise they have yet to be tested in the real world. There is a reason so many designers gravitate towards the ethereal realms of installation art and 'research', of the kind that now fills biennales: it's a lot easier to comment on a problem than solve it. The seaweed might be envious of a project around the corner, made in collaboration with its more primitive relative, red algae. Australian designer Jessie French has developed an organic algae-based vinyl as an alternative to synthetic window decals, contrasting the few weeks it takes for algae to grow with the many hundreds of years it takes for man-made plastics to decompose. The museum considered using it for the exhibition signage, but the carbon footprint of shipping it from Australia sadly put paid to that idea. Elsewhere there are some ingenious examples of 'nature-based infrastructure', from 3D-printed coral reefs and sea walls, full of little ridges and holes to encourage marine life, to floating breakwaters that mitigate storm surges, which are also designed as habitats for oysters. Indigenous wisdom gets a look-in too, with baskets woven by the Ye'kuana people of the Venezuelan Amazon, who ask the permission of the forest before using its products, and a film that highlights the Inga people of the Colombian Amazon and their hallucinogenic use of ayahuasca. Just like the Ant Farm collective, it sometimes takes a little something extra before we can fully communicate with our more-than-human cousins. An altered state might help the exhibition-goers, too. In the end, it is (perhaps appropriately) nature itself that steals the show. Each section begins with a group of historic artefacts in vitrines, including a beautiful collection of animal nests. Marvel at the grotto-like wood pulp habitat of the European wasp, or the dainty nest of a hummingbird, fashioned from antibacterial lichen and cobwebs for elasticity, or the tiny clay capsule of the solitary potter wasp, hanging from a branch. The female wasp sculpts these little pots from mud and saliva, before laying an egg inside and stocking it with provisions of paralysed caterpillars. Now there's some more-than-human maternal cunning. More than Human is at the Design Museum, London, from 11 July–5 October.
