Yael Eylat Van-Essen PhD – Curator / Researcher

From New Materials to New Structures: Biology and Architecture

This lecture revolved around the potential integration between biology and architecture in order to explore new perspectives for the built environment. It focus on the exhibition LifeObject that I have curated for the Israeli Pavilion at the 15th Biennale for Architecture in Venice, in which different models on hybridization between the two disciplines were examined. Referring to some of the projects shown in this exhibition, I have demonstrated how the use of new materials and the fabrication methods deriving from them can influence structural thinking in architecture. I referred in this context to both artificial materials which are ‘naturally engineered’ and to natural materials which are artificially manipulated.