The More than Human exhibition, at the Design Museum in London, is the first major museum exhibition on more-than-human design. It opened in July and runs until October 2025 and showcases works by renowned artists and leading design changemakers to set a new direction for design based on humanity’s collaboration with the living world.
Founded in 1989 by Sir Terence Conran, the Design Museum is a place iwhere the design industry, education and the public come together to change the way people think about themselves and the future through the lens of design.
More than Human refers to a growing design movement that questions the human-centric lens that has defined Western design practice and embraces the idea that the flourishing of all species is interconnected. More-than-human design calls for focused attention on the needs of environments and the species they host. Designers, architects and artists are increasingly directing their work towards the needs of non-human species. Their approaches range from the sharing of ancient knowledge to the design of new habitats and, ultimately, the shifting of perspectives.
“This is not just another exhibition about ‘sustainable design’, this is a radical rethink of design’s role in the world,” says Justin McGuirk, Director of Future Observatory. “While much of the work in the exhibition is nascent or exploratory, it represents a fundamental shift in worldview toward humans using design not just for their own benefit but for the flourishing of the living systems we depend upon. More than Human is what design needs to become in the 21st century.”
Highlights of the exhibition include major new commissions by four designers who were supported with research fellowships funded by Future Observatory. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s vast new tapestry explores the perspectives of pollinators, while an 8m-long mural by MOTH (More Than Human Life Project) depicts the growing movement to award legal rights to waterways around the world.
Brazilian architect Paulo Tavares has worked with Indigenous communities in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on the development of mapping techniques used in the struggle for land recognition, and Chinese spatial and visual designer Feifei Zhou has observed the fishing practices of local communities in Timor, Indonesia, revealing the porosity of multispecies exchange along coastal zones. Meanwhile, the designer Julia Lohmann has created a large-scale seaweed installation specifically for the exhibition, a group of five organic seaweed forms that seem to have met to discuss the state of the seas and human impacts upon them, entitled ‘Kelp Council’.
By bringing together over 140 works spanning contemporary and traditional practices, fine art, product design, architecture and interactive installations, the exhibition explores how humans can relearn to design with and for the natural world in the face of climate emergency.
The exhibition is structured into three sections. Visitors first encounter ‘Being Landscape’, showcasing art and design that conveys the idea that humans are very much part of the natural world, not separate to it.
This section includes a major new commission, an 8m-long mural by MOTH (More Than Human Life Project), including lawyer César Rodriguez-Garavito and illustrator Elena Landinez. The expansive mural depicts a sprawling network of interconnected rivers decorated with a myriad of illustrations of animals, plant life and text, addressing the growing movement to award legal rights to waterways around the world. Our relationship with trees is also examined through a European lens with photographic works by Federico Borella and Michela Balboni, who document the ancestral ritual in Southern Italy of the ‘Rumiti’, tree-men covered in ivy who act as living symbols of a deep connection with nature and its preservation.
Renowned British artist Johnathan Baldock presents a series of bronze-cast cornhusk masks inspired by pagan corn dollies. Baldock’s interest in craft and working-class histories stems from his family’s agricultural background in Kent, England.
The second section, ‘Making with the World’, provides both practical and speculative design solutions that are made for the benefit of plants, animals and environments.
On show are historical fishing traps from communities in the UK, Myanmar, Indonesia, Nicobar Islands and the Waswahili (Swahili) people, demonstrating how traditional, localised techniques are far less impactful on marine ecosystems compared to modern fishing.
This section also features contemporary design innovations that help restore damaged and dying marine ecosystems such as coral reefs. Reef Design Lab’s Living Seawalls, a man-made habitat for marine life, is exhibited alongside the lab’s Modular Artificial Reef Structure II, which is dropped to the ocean floor to help regenerate and repopulate natural reef structures.
The final section, ‘Shifting Perspective’, asks us to consider how plants and animals perceive the world and identify their place within it.
This section includes nests from various species including wasps, ants and birds, intricate structures that provide a glimpse into the needs and decision-making of these creatures. It also features a seminal early work of more-than-human design by the art collective Ant Farm. Dolphin Embassy, from 1974, was an extensive research project that sought to build a marine centre for communication between humans and dolphins.
Japanese artist Shimabuku’s long-term fascination with the behaviour of octopuses is on display, conveyed through the small glass balls he created for Sculpture for Octopuses: Exploring for Their Favorite Colors, which is exhibited alongside a slideshow documenting the octopuses’ reactions.
“It’s important for museums and cultural institutions to respond to the complex issues facing our planet and society at present,” says Tim Marlow, Director and CEO of the Design Museum. “It’s also important to shift perspectives from a human-centric view of the world to one closer to nature which will make this a landmark exhibition in every sense. More than Human will showcase some of the ground-breaking work that Future Observatory has done at the museum and beyond over the last three years, a blend of extensive sustainable research, critical thinking and advocacy which is central to our cultural programming.”
