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Spring 2025: Neri Oxman
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It all started in a tiny garden in Haifa, Israel.
“The return to innocence, seeking the innocence of one’s upbringing,” she says. “That is the kernel.”
Neri Oxman is speaking of her grandmother’s garden, of her childhood in northern Israel in the foothills of Mount Carmel, where the sea breeze blew through her curly dark hair. It was Savta Miriam’s magical garden that set off a young Neri’s imagination in thinking about the Earth—and it was Neri’s parents, Robert and Rivka, both prominent architects and celebrated academics, who set her on a path toward creative design.
After completing her service in the Israeli Air Force, Oxman went on to study at the Hadassah Medical School for two years, then eventually switched her studies to architecture and obtained her degree from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. In 2010, Oxman earned her doctorate in Design Computation from MIT and founded a research group at the MIT Media Lab.
There, she discovered a passion for environmental design and digital morphogenesis and coined a design philosophy all her own: material ecology. This approach combines computational design techniques with biology, engineering, and computer sciences to build—and even grow—objects and structures through principles of natural growth instead of assembly. Over the years, her work has been featured in the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian, and Centre Georges Pompidou.
Oxman became a tenured professor at MIT in 2016. In 2018, she won the Cooper Hewitt Design Award for Interactive Design. As one juror told the New York Times, Oxman could “just as easily have been nominated for fashion or architecture or product design.”
OXMAN is the name of Neri Oxman’s design studio and research laboratory, which focuses on the intersection of design, technology, and biology. It is an interdisciplinary platform where Oxman and her team of scientists, architects, engineers, and designers work on innovative projects that combine material science, digital fabrication, bioengineering, and sustainability. The studio is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of architecture and design by drawing inspiration from the natural world and using cutting-edge technologies like 3D printing, biofabrication, and robotics to create materials, structures, and environments that are both sustainable and responsive to their surroundings.
Key Features of OXMAN Studio:
Interdisciplinary Research: The OXMAN lab combines diverse fields such as architecture, biology, engineering, and computer science to explore the creation of new materials, structures, and environments. The studio attracts experts from various domains to collaborate on solutions that address some of the world’s most pressing challenges in sustainable design across scales, including product, architectural, urban, and landscape design as well as ecosystem engineering.
Bio-informed Design: Many of the projects developed by OXMAN are bio-informed. They take direct cues from the natural world, studying how living organisms and systems grow and adapt to their environments. The goal is to emulate, sustain, and even improve the efficiency, sustainability, and resilience of natural systems in human-made structures and environments.
Cutting-edge Technology: The studio employs 3D printing, robotic fabrication, and biofabrication to create materials and products that traditional manufacturing methods cannot achieve. These techniques allow OXMAN to design complex, adaptive structures that can respond to environmental stimuli, such as changes in temperature, humidity, and light.
Material Reincarnation: A core principle of OXMAN is sustainability not through recycling but through “reincarnation.” The studio designs materials and structures that are functional, aesthetically appealing, and environmentally informed, incorporating processes of decay and biodegradation into the initial design process. This includes using biodegradable materials, minimizing waste, and creating systems that are regenerative rather than extractive.
In 2020, she launched her dream: OXMAN, a design and innovation lab based in New York. Designed in collaboration with Foster + Partners, the 36,000-square-foot lab operates at the intersection of computational design, robotics, green chemistry, biology, and ecological engineering.
For a layperson, it is hard to understand what this all means until one walks through the all-glass, sunlit two-story space on Eleventh Avenue. Looking outside the glass windows feels like floating in a cloud above Manhattan, yet inside, the lab is a world of its own.
“Our work at MIT enabled us to create a meaningful body of research,” Oxman says as she walks up the pristine white stairs. “But now, we are focused on translating our innovations into real-world applications that benefit society and the natural world. Humanely purposeful, nature-considered, innocence-filled.”
Innocence-filled. That’s the way she speaks—the mind of a scientist, the eyes of an artist, and the voice of a poet.
At a wide table, with complex robotic arms behind them, two young scientists stand at desks in front of monitors. The two are working on “O°”—designing and producing shoes and textiles that are better for both humanity and the Earth.
“Shoes are one of the most complex yet wasteful objects in the apparel business,” Oxman explains as one engineer presents a prototype, a silken white sneaker. “So, we went for the hardest, most complicated apparel item—both in terms of function and in terms of the high wear they see.”
They are working with thermoplastic materials that can be 3D-printed, and the prototypes are created in-house and robotically constructed by OXMAN engineers.
“Along the way, we invent and innovate, pushing the boundaries of architecture, product design, and apparel while cultivating environmental awareness.”
One of OXMAN’s team members then holds a shoe, proudly sharing that these are “carbon-negative shoes—8 kilos per pair.”
For Oxman, this is not just a space for special projects; it is one in which inventors have the capacity to question how to build.
“The Industrial Revolution set the tone for what and how we make things,” she says. “This place questions that tenor by asking how we can grow a product.”
Neri Oxman is widely credited for coining the phrase “material ecology,” which describes a multidisciplinary approach to design that integrates natural systems, biological processes, and advanced technologies to create sustainable, adaptive, and innovative materials and structures. It involves studying the natural world—how organisms, ecosystems, and materials interact with and evolve in their environments—and using this knowledge to develop methods and products. Material ecology aims to design structures, environments, and systems that not only emulate the efficiency and sustainability of the ones found in nature but also actively participate in processes like growth, adaptation, and self-repair (much like biological organisms).
Oxman, a pioneer in material ecology, combines her and her team’s background in architecture, design, biology, and materials science to create bio-informed designs that respond to environmental factors, much like living organisms do. The team’s vision challenges traditional materials used in architecture and design, pushing for systems more aligned with nature’s regenerative, adaptive, and sustainable processes.
Oxman’s approach to material ecology is centered on the idea that structures should not be homogeneous in their properties, static or inert. Instead, they should behave dynamically, just as biological materials like bone, skin, and wood respond to their environment. This can involve materials that grow, change, and evolve, creating more sustainable designs that actively contribute to their surroundings rather than simply using them.
Key Aspects of Oxman’s Work in Material Ecology
Biomimicry: Oxman draws inspiration from nature’s processes to inform design. For example, she looks at how natural systems like plant growth, animal behavior, or coral reef formations adapt to changing environments and uses these processes as models for her work. The goal is to create materials and structures with the same efficiency, sustainability, and adaptability as those in nature.
Responsive Materials: In line with her approach to material ecology, Oxman designs structures that can adapt to environmental conditions. For instance, garments and wearables are made to respond to changes in temperature, humidity, and pressure, similar to how biological organisms adjust to their surroundings. This ensures the materials function optimally in diverse conditions, minimizing waste and energy use.
Sustainability and Circularity: Material ecology, as explored by Oxman, emphasizes the importance of creating sustainable materials that can participate in a circular system—one where materials are not discarded but instead reused or repurposed. In this framework, materials “live” in cycles, like ecosystems, contributing to their environment before being broken down and reabsorbed into new systems.
Integration of Digital Fabrication: Oxman also integrates advanced technologies like 3D printing and robotic fabrication into her approach. These tools allow her to design and fabricate materials and structures that are customized and optimized for their specific environment, incorporating biological principles into the production process.
As we walk away from the robotic lab, across a ramp leading to the wet lab, Oxman gently gestures with a sweeping hand around us.
“Think Bell Labs meets Disney,” she says. “A place where designers, engineers, architects, scientists and even artists come together to project as well as to build a better future. It’s radical, perhaps because it’s rare. Robotics, computational design, mechanical engineering, bioengineering, and green chemistry all unite to form a whole that is bigger than the sum of its parts; a soup rather than a salad.”
And indeed, as we don white coats and walk through the facility, she shows me exactly what she means.
One chemist is testing new kinds of freshly engineered pigmented dyes pouring out of beakers. Another is testing the O° shoe prototype, ensuring it is indeed biodegradable and leaves no microplastics in tropical water. Another scientist is monitoring how the shoe transforms back into earth in a climate-controlled eco chamber.
“We are modifying the material to see if there’s a way for it to also positively impact soil and even the biome as a whole,” the plant scientist explains, pointing to glass containers with shoes buried in soil.
One of Oxman’s team’s most groundbreaking projects is Wanderers, a series of wearable, bio-inspired garments created to explore the intersection of material science, biology, and design. This project is a prime example of the team’s innovative approach, blending natural principles with cutting-edge technology to create wearable art that reflects functionality and sustainability. So, how did the Wanderers project come to life?
The Concept
The Wanderers project began with Oxman’s fascination in the future of space travel, particularly the need for garments that could adapt to extreme environments, such as those found on Mars. The project was inspired by the idea of creating adaptive garments that could respond in ways similar to how biological organisms do in nature. Oxman and her team envisioned clothing that could not only protect astronauts from harsh conditions, but also adapt to changes in the environment.
The garments were designed to enhance the wearer’s interaction with their surroundings, particularly in environments with limited resources, such as space. The goal was to create a new type of “wearable architecture” that could combine function with aesthetic beauty while using innovative, sustainable materials.
The Design Process
The design process was a collaboration between researchers in various fields, including materials science, biology, and engineering. They began by studying natural organisms, focusing on how plants, animals, and insects adapt to their environments. The team explored biomimicry—the concept of taking inspiration from nature to solve human challenges—and began applying it to their garment designs.
One key aspect of the design was to use differentiated structures that would adapt to different environmental conditions, much like how skin or other biological surfaces react to changes in temperature, moisture, or pressure. The team used computational design tools to model how these materials could change and interact with external stimuli, such as temperature, humidity, or pressure. They also explored the integration of biofabrication and 3D printing techniques to create these unique structures.
Further down, another capsule eco chamber contains the ALEF project, done in conjunction with the New York Botanical Gardens. It is tuned to simulate Manhattan in the 1860s—when this island supported more ecological communities per acre than Yellowstone. The Industrial Revolution was a kind of original sin, Neri explains to me, and modernity’s blessing was its curse. This part of the lab is testing what it looks like to return to an Eden moment, the original state of things to be.
Right outside the grow room, a shelf contains a rainbow of glass containers filled with kernels of molecular smells sourced from the ALEF environment.
“We ask, can we reconstruct the smells of the ancient past to inform—even heal—the distant future?” she says, opening a container and taking a whiff of the nearly extinct oak tulip tree forest.
“The common thread is tikkun olam,” she adds with a coy smile, referring to the Hebrew precept of fixing a broken world.
This, I learn, is classic Oxman—speaking with lyricism, peppering deeply technical explanations with biblical and historical references, unafraid of the unknown.
Oxman and her team have invented and pioneered several groundbreaking concepts, materials, and technologies, particularly in design, architecture, and digital fabrication. Some of their most notable inventions and innovations have turned out to be inspirations to many designers following in their path for the past two decades:
1. Bio-hybrid Materials
One of Oxman’s team’s key contributions to material design is their development of hybrid living materials, also known as HLMs. These materials are partly constructed and partly grown, combining digital fabrication processes such as 3D printing with biological growth. For instance, in several projects, including “Vespers” (London Design Museum, 2016), Oxman’s team incorporated chemical signals into the 3D printing process designed to activate certain behaviors—such as a change in color of florescence—in biologically engineered microorganisms. This starkly contrasts traditional manufacturing, which relies on static, homogeneous, and non-living materials.
2. Bio-informed Structures
The Silk Pavilion (MoMA, 2020) is a notable project in which Oxman and her team combined robotics and biological processes. The pavilion was constructed using robotically spun silk threads augmented with biological silk, with the help of large-scale robotic systems designed to guide the silkworms to create the structure. The project showed the potential of combining biological growth and robotic automation to produce lightweight, sustainable, and adaptive architectural structures without boiling the cocoons. This approach integrates biology and technology in a way that had not been done before in architecture.
3. Living Architecture
Oxman is also associated with the concept of living architecture, in which buildings and structures are designed using biological principles such as self-healing materials or environments that can adapt to changing conditions. One of her concepts involved creating architecture where the materials grow and evolve, much like living organisms. This field explores how buildings can be more symbiotic with nature, contributing to sustainability and energy efficiency. In the OXMAN lab, the team is currently working on large-scale urban projects involving computational techniques designed to enable and promote the biodiversity, resilience, and productivity of ecosystems for the mutual empowerment of humans and the environment (Eden, 2024-2025).
“These projects—they’re not merely utilitarian,” she explains. “They are Trojan horses filled with the values that make them and that unmake them.”
And it’s here, in this cloud-like laboratory, hovering somewhere between heaven and Manhattan Island, that Oxman is dreaming up and building up those Trojan horses, one invention at a time.
Here, surrounded by the hum of robots, printers and the gentle glow of bioreactors, the tangible and the ethereal mingle. Prototypes, shimmering with iridescent hues and intricate organic forms, line the shelves—living, breathing arguments for a future where technology and nature are finally collaborators, working together in harmony.
Following Oxman around her kingdom, one can’t help but feel that the future she envisions is not just possible but already taking shape here, in the heart of her cloud.