Glasgow School of Art has teamed up with Grimshaw and the Eden Project to launch a suite of biomimetic design courses exploring how nature can feed into architecture, design and fine art.
Glasgow School of Art (GSA) will begin by developing a series of optional biomimetic modules to sit within existing post-graduate courses for the new academic year in September 2022.
Plans the for the interdisciplinary courses were unveiled during an event at The Glasgow Art Club to coincide with COP26.
The collaboration builds on an existing relationship between GSA, Grimshaw and the Eden project, with the school already having established a designer-in-residence programme at the Grimshaw-designed Eden Project in Cornwall.
Grimshaw designed the iconic biomes for the Eden Project in Cornwall, which opened in 2001
“We are now at a critical moment in time, where the way we shape our relationship with our planet over the next decade will decide our future for generations to come,” says Grimshaw chair Andrew Whalley.
“The Biomimetics Design will demonstrate how we can come together to harness our opportunities: bringing design, technology and the natural worlds closer, as well bringing greater collaboration across our design industries.”
The Eden Project is now also developing research residences at GSA’s Highlands and Islands campus near Forres, Scotland.
“Much has been written about being inspired by nature yet it is important to realise that in order to be able to be inspired you need to closely observe how it really is, not romantically assume you’ve understood some lazy symmetry and that will suffice,” says Eden Project founder Sir Tim Smit.
“Eden is getting involved because we believe the architect, designer, engineer and artist are fundamental in creating contentment and happiness for their fellow citizens and one hundred years from now we hope they will say of this period that it has the hallmarks of a movement inspired by the nature and a boldness of vision with beauty at its muscular heart.”
