Neri Oxman, the former MIT professor and winner of the 2018 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, has launched a new operation called OXMAN and based in New York City.
Promising a "radical new species of design practice," Oxman, who is collaborating with Foster + Partners on the realization of its 36,000-square-foot space on 11th Avenue in Manhattan, described it as 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."
Initiatives will be pursued in three main project areas and their corresponding platforms. Throughout, a press announcement for OXMAN states, the project will 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."
The first, Oo (pronounced 'O-Zero'), is focused on product fabrication and described as a "vertically integrated approach to biopolymer design." The second, EDEN, focuses on ecological design for structures and landscapes. The third, ALEF, is meant to explore possibilities for agricultural production and combat the state of monocropping that has been shown to destabilize ancient ecosystems.
OXMAN adds further that its lab space is "one of the most advanced digital fabrication facilities in New York City." The space includes a robotics shop, wet lab, gallery space, and plan nursery and is equipped for a diverse staff of up to 133 engineers and scientists of various academic backgrounds and expertise.
Oxman left the MIT Media Lab to found OXMAN in 2020 after serving as a tenured professor there for over three years.
1 Comment
Research? Scientists do research.
This is art, and art is fine.
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