OXMAN operates on three scales of design: product design, architectural design, and molecular design. The lab and the projects that it undertakes – currently focusing on fashion, architecture, and scent design — are intertwined such that inventions made in one domain inform innovations in another. The lab creates fully integrated systems that unify design, materials, production, and decomposition, to create positive impacts across the lifecycle of products and buildings.
"We are a design and innovation company that creates new technologies, products, and environments across a range of scales and applications, from the molecular to the urban scale," remarked Dr. Neri Oxman, Founder and CEO, OXMAN. "We advocate for synergy between biology and technology, moving towards products and buildings that are designed for the immediate and long-term well-being of human civilization and the natural world."
OXMAN, established in 2020, has recently completed the construction of the OXMAN lab, designed in collaboration with Foster + Partners; expanded the OXMAN team, and developed cutting-edge innovations and inventions. Led by Dr. Oxman, the OXMAN team includes architects and product designers, biomedical, mechanical, and textile engineers; molecular biologists, chemists, and materials scientists; data visualization specialists, computational and parametric designers, instrument makers, and other expert creators.
OXMAN's work challenges the status quo of product, architectural, and molecular design by creating products that can grow and decompose with beneficial properties for soil microbiomes, urban masterplans designed to rewild ecosystems, and molecular compounds that encode signals of biodiversity and resilience, respectively.
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THREE PRACTICE AREAS
OXMAN's ethos is rooted in Material Ecology, a design approach developed by Dr. Oxman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2006. The approach considers all aspects of design – from generative design through material sourcing and processing, digital fabrication, and construction, to end-of-life scenarios – as part of the natural ecology. OXMAN believes that manmade materials and constructs have a holistic relationship with the environment and should be designed to maximize their net positive contributions to it. The principles of Material Ecology aim to reduce the dimensional mismatch between things that are made and things that are grown; for example, by increasing the resolution of the design space to match that of biological systems, and/or by creating design systems that can adapt and respond to their environment in real-time.
OXMAN's long-term vision is to impart positive impact upon the natural environment through systems that unite top-down planning and engineering, with bottom-up emergence and growth. A summary of OXMAN's long-term goals, recent inventions and how they revolutionize current practice follows below.
Scale | OXMAN Goals | OXMAN Inventions | OXMAN Transformations |
Product | Design the lifecycle of consumer goods to borrow matter and energy from the natural environment and return them upon obsolescence. | A revolutionary class of biologically programmed, computationally grown, and robotically manufactured shoes and textiles that are 100% biocompatible and biodegradable, and made with no microplastics. | In place of assembling discrete parts, each with their own inert material and homogeneous properties, OXMAN cultivates biocompatible mono-materials characterized by highly tunable property gradients and multi-functionality. |
Architectural | Promote the biodiversity, resilience, and productivity of ecosystems for the mutual empowerment of humans and the environment. | A software environment that applies computational decision-making algorithms to master planning approaches that incorporate ecosystem engineering principles. | In contrast to 'net-zero' construction – which aims to minimize negative impact – OXMAN seeks to maximize ecological well-being through new forms of ecological construction. |
Molecular | Simulate, revive, restore, and rewild ancient and novel ecosystems, capturing molecular "signature compounds" of biodiverse, resilient, and productive environments. | Data-driven grow rooms (or "Capsules") that enable the revival and restoration of ancient and/or struggling ecosystems, including the creation of ancient smells that embody biodiverse and resilient environments. | Rather than producing and consuming monocultures, OXMAN pursues the study of ancient ecosystems – as well as the exploration of novel ones – that sustain diverse, internally regulated, and highly networked life-forms. |
PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS
OXMAN's current work includes three initiatives and platforms. Developed in complementarity, OXMAN's work propagates the company's foundational precept that the design of anything and everything need not be harmful to the environment and can indeed be designed to remediate, replenish, and even rewild existing ecosystems.
- Oo (pronounced "O-Zero") explores how designed objects can borrow – rather than consume – matter and energy from the natural world and return them upon obsolescence. It is driven by the belief that the lifecycles of consumer goods can be designed from end-to-end to embody the growth and decomposition of ecosystems.
By defaulting to over-engineered assemblies of diverse materials, each requiring different manufacturing and disposal processes, human-made products cause health and environmental harm while struggling to match the performance and sustainability of natural material systems. OXMAN is focused instead on creating consumer products made from one material class, using one machine, under one roof.
The Oo platform is a vertically integrated approach to biopolymer design, digital fabrication, and programmable decomposition. It removes the complexity involved in fabricating objects by tuning polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), a single, versatile material class known for its biodegradability in ambient conditions. PHAs are produced by bacteria fed on abundant natural resources such as atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane, and food waste. OXMAN's compact robotic system 3D prints custom PHA blends onto a textile that is 3D knitted from a PHA-based yarn produced through a process of extrusion and melt spinning. Interlacing fibers to create shape and movement eliminates the cut-and-sew and adhesion processes associated with traditional assembly lines. As a result, the Oo knitting technology approaches a zero-waste process.
Oo knitting technology first appears in a collection of fully biodegradable shoes made entirely from PHAs. It embodies the versatility of PHAs by incorporating them as knitted textiles and 3D printed elements in precise designs informed by the kinetics of human motion. The heart of each shoe is a unifying base layer of a knitted sock. Given the shoe's intent (e.g., ballet slipper, shoe, clog), outer layers are printed on the knitted textile to provide specific functionalities such as reinforcement, cushioning, strength, and pliability. The versatility and automation built into the Oo platform enable rapid iterations and an accelerated development process from design to production.
The material for all components of the Oo products is produced and can be consumed by bacteria. This circular process points to a future where biodegrading products can nourish the soil from which they originate, growing from and reincarnating into plant matter. Dr. Oxman summarizes the project as: "100% PHA, 100% biodegradable, 0% microplastics, infinite life."
- EDEN explores how structures and landscapes can enhance – rather than degrade – ecosystems for the mutual empowerment of humans and the natural world. It is driven by the belief that buildings can be designed and used in ways that help rewild ecosystems.
By neglecting non-human organisms and ecosystems, modern-day building and planning practices contribute to habitat loss, environmental pollution, and biodiversity loss. OXMAN seeks instead to design structures that not only meet the needs of human occupants but also promote biodiversity, resilience, and the performance of critical ecosystem services.
OXMAN proposes a new paradigm for architectural design called Ecological Programming whereby structures and spaces are designed to not only meet the needs of human occupants but also promote biodiversity, ecosystem resilience, and the performance of critical ecosystem services, i.e., the production of environmental outputs that humans rely on. OXMAN applies a novel design approach called "generative optimization" that applies computational decision-making algorithms to site-specific data to refine a vast solution space of architectural configurations over many iterations. The team has also developed a suite of "rapid environmental simulation" tools that can be leveraged to determine which design solutions will yield the greatest positive environmental impacts. Factors considered as part of the optimization process include environmental conditions, habitat connectivity, resource availability, ecosystem stability, and the provision of specific ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration or air purification.
In a case study project entitled EDEN Tower, OXMAN proposes a novel urban typology that integrates living spaces with ecological infrastructure. Grassland and forest ecosystems growing on the tower exterior manage regulating services for thermal buffering and other natural processes. Transparent interior spaces facilitate human-centered cultural services such as recreation and education. Interstitial zones host services for provisioning material resources such as timber from a young forest, and foraging and pollination processes in flower meadows. While the tower provides a base for ecosystems to flourish, the ecologies, in turn, generate essential ecosystem services that support human life, fostering a symbiotic relationship of collaboration and cohabitation between the natural and the constructed.
OXMAN has partnered with Goodman Group (ASX: GMG) to further the work of maximizing the positive impact of built structures on the environment. Goodman, a AU$69 billion market cap global company headquartered in Australia, is a provider of essential infrastructure with a development and management portfolio of high-quality, sustainable logistics properties and data centers in major cities worldwide. In line with its commitment to reduce the environmental impact of its built work while enhancing social benefits, Goodman has commissioned OXMAN to conduct studies that will inform future building practices and extend beyond sustainability to promote ecological well-being and the rewilding of ecosystems. Click here for more information on the Goodman-OXMAN partnership.
- ALEF explores how the production of ingredients for foods, fragrances, and flavors can add to – rather than subtract from – native plant life, soil fertility, and bacterial composition. It is driven by the belief that molecular goods can be designed to revive ancient ecosystems and drive overall health in future ecosystems.
By growing the same species in the same field, year after year, modern agricultural practices of continuous monocropping lead to unstable ecologies vulnerable to soil degradation, water contamination, and rampant pests and diseases. OXMAN is instead working to design polycultures that reflect natural ecosystems and empower multiple species in the same region to interact in mutually beneficial ways.
The ALEF platform is a combination of technologies for polyculture research and engineering. Novel sensors decode the dynamic chemical signals released by bacteria, plants, and entire ecosystems. Each signal is a unique composition of biogenic volatile organic compounds (bVOCs), often carrying an associated smell.
Smells can be collected and recreated from real-world, simulated, and designed ecologies to access new information about species composition and the state of various ecological systems. OXMAN has developed four specialized grow rooms, called "Capsules," that can each be programmed with custom organisms, temperature, light, humidity, and airflow to target a unique ecological challenge.
"From a biodiversity chamber designed to study and heal a struggling ecosystem to a 'scent computer' designed to concoct a functionalized fragrance with no harm to the environment, we seek to advance our understanding of the natural world while offering alternatives to methods of designing molecular goods that rely on monocropping," remarked Dr. Oxman. "In fact, we are currently working on developing one of the most ecologically biodiverse environments in New York City, and it is thriving in our lab."
OXMAN currently targets two main pathways: restoring and monitoring an ancient ecosystem and developing synthetic biology tools for bVOC research. In the former, OXMAN has used a Capsule to revive the ancient Oak-Tulip Tree Forest. While individual species are not all extinct, the natural ecology of the forest no longer exists in its entirety – until now. OXMAN's "surrogate ecology" is historically accurate beyond the selection of plants: DNA sequencing was implemented to identify the trillions of soil microorganisms; species distribution was computationally designed; and the environmental conditions mimic weather patterns from the earliest recordings in Manhattan. Remnants of the ecology still exist in the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). Courtesy of NYBG, OXMAN has collected on-site bVOC samples over four seasons. The two environments – the wild forest and the controlled lab – are connected via custom-designed sensors that create a conduit for real-time communication.
By deciphering the language of biological communication, OXMAN generates insights that have the potential to inform molecular design across domains, including horticulture and companion planting design, agriculture, scent and flavor design, aromatherapy, cosmeceuticals, and more. These insights provide a deeper understanding of what constitutes a healthy ecosystem, the range of potentially beneficial interventions, and new ways to resurrect ancient ecosystems and promote biodiversity worldwide. OXMAN aims to extend its work in this area to advances in human health and precision agriculture.
ABOUT THE OXMAN LAB
Located in New York City, the 36,000-square-foot laboratory, designed in collaboration with Foster + Partners, is a one-of-a-kind facility. The lab integrates an architectural studio with a state-of-the-art workshop – one of the most advanced digital fabrication facilities in New York City – including a robotics shop that enables experimental work with large-scale collaborative robots, and a wet lab that meets Biosafety Level 2 standards, allowing the OXMAN team to develop biologically augmented digital fabrication technologies. Spread across two floors, OXMAN lab includes private meeting spaces, a library, an exhibition gallery, an open-concept kitchen, a garden terrace, and a nursery, with abundant indoor and outdoor spaces for reflection and discovery. The lab is equipped to accommodate the work of more than 133 designers, scientists, and engineers.
ABOUT NERI OXMAN
Neri Oxman, PhD
Founder and CEO, OXMAN
Hailed as Nature's Architect, Neri Oxman is a designer, inventor, and researcher. Her design approach and philosophy, entitled Material Ecology, lies at the intersection of culture and nature calling for the unification of the made and the grown across scales and species.
A multi-disciplinary designer, Oxman founded The Mediated Matter Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2010 where she established and pioneered the field of Material Ecology, fusing technology and biology to deliver designs that align with principles of ecological sustainability. Oxman became a tenured professor at MIT in 2017. Oxman received her PhD in Design Computation at MIT in 2010. Prior to that, she earned a diploma from the Architectural Association in London, complementing studies at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, and training at the Department of Medical Sciences at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
In addition to over 150 scientific publications and inventions, Oxman's work is included in the permanent collections of leading international museums including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), Centre Pompidou, MAK Museum of Applied Arts, FRAC Collection for Art and Architecture, and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. Her work has been recognized at the World Economic Forum, where she was named a Cultural Leader in 2016 and is a member of the Expert Network. In 2018, Oxman was honored with the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award and the London Design Innovation Medal. In 2019, she received an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Contemporary Vision Award by SFMOMA. Oxman's work was presented in monograph shows at MoMA in 2020 and SFMOMA in 2022.
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