MICHAEL PAWLYN & KELLY HILL
2018
Photography, Giclée Hahnemühle Photo Rag
19.7" × 13.9" (50cm × 35cm) - unframed
This artwork is unframed - framing costs are additional.
The giant Amazonian water lily has evolved large leaves with elaborate rib structures on the underside to stiffen the surface. The leaves can grow to 2m in diameter and are strong enough to support a child. Exploration made a cast of a leaf (kindly supplied by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew) in order to better understand the branching pattern. This fed into the design of a 3D-printed table inspired by bone and plant growth patterns with the aim of achieving a theoretically perfect structure (in the sense of using a minimum of material to achieve the desired performance)
Credits: Exploration Architecture (Team: Alizee Cugney and Michael Pawlyn), Photography by Kelly Hill
Michael Pawlyn is an architect, writer and public speaker with an expertise in regenerative design and biomimicry. His design practice Exploration Architecture has developed a range of transformative projects including a ground-breaking office, a zero waste textiles factory and the widely acclaimed Sahara Forest Project. His TED talk has had over 2 million views. He has written two books: Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency (co-authored with Sarah Ichioka) and Biomimicry in Architecture. In 2019 he jointly initiated ‘Architects Declare a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency’.
Kelly Hill is a photographer, curator and artist. She works closely with the Architect, Michael Pawlyn on the production of creative content for exhibition, film, publication and online, including Flourish (Pawlyn & Ichioka), Buey’s Acorns (Ackroyd & Harvey), Future Knowledge (Modern Art Oxford) and Designing with Nature (The Architecture Foundation). Using the medium of photography, drawing, walking, making and installation, Kelly investigates what it is to be a part of nature, and how one establishes a reciprocal relationship with it. Examining how this relationship shifts - metaphorically, politically, and climatically.