Co- Creating with Nature - Neri Oxman

This article explores an approach you’ll often encounter when discussing computational design/ design in general: nature as inspiration. Many projects draw from the anatomy, forms, and patterns found in nature. If you are familiar with the term biomimicry (in which the design mimics any of its natural properties for example form), the approach I am gonna talk about in the article is a step further is how we can co create with nature. 

The studio I’m currently involved in takes this concept deeper. Nature is intelligent, organizing itself in highly efficient ways. For example, ants instinctively find the shortest path to food, and flowers have specific petal arrangements, etc. These systems aren’t random—they’re based on mathematical logic. So, why not apply this knowledge? By studying nature, we can understand behaviors, material distribution and structure, which in turn could inform our design process, especially materials in this case. To further explain this, I’m drawing from the work of Neri Oxman. She takes this idea one step further and asks: Can nature be a co-creator or co-client? Can we work with nature and give back to nature (OXMAN, n.d.)? 

Neri Oxman, an Israeli-American designer and architect, is renowned for her pioneering work in material ecology, blending nature, biology, and technology in her designs. Born in Haifa, Israel, she initially studied medicine before shifting to architecture, earning a degree from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and later a PhD in Design Computation from MIT in 2010. That same year, she founded the Mediated Matter Group at MIT, and in 2021, she launched her own design firm, OXMAN, (Wikipedia contributors, 2024).

She aims to create more nature-based materials and fabricate them digitally using technology. For instance, in one of her lectures, she mentioned that the physical matter we build now exceeds the biomass on Earth, which is alarming. Nature uses only a few molecules—cellulose, chitin, and pectin—to create everything. Why not manipulate these natural materials for human use?

Oxman’s team uses environmental factors like humidity, light, and heat to compute a growth system (i.e., using algorithms based on these factors) that allows simulating and controlling the material’s behavior digitally to achieve desired outcomes. This is known as data-driven material modeling (Boston Architectural College, 2021). By using this generative approach, they explore how to structure materials based on physical properties like water affinity, heat sensitivity, and opacity. On those bases, possibilities are explored in terms of what material has to offer. This approach might lead to the possibility of building in a single material rather than assembling. 

Neri Oxman’s Projects

To give you a better idea of her work, here are a few of her projects that showcase the potential of co-creating with nature.

My favorite project is the Silk Pavilion, created in collaboration with silkworms. Typically, silk is extracted by boiling the worms, but Oxman sought a more humane and sustainable method. Her team studied how silkworms weave and the environmental factors affecting the patterns, density, and thickness of their silk (Silk Pavilion II, n.d.). Based on this knowledge, they manipulated the weaving to create dense areas where structural support was needed and thinner, translucent areas where less support was required. They built a very basic structure, covered it with a thin fabric, and let thousands of silkworms weave the structure.