At London’s Design Museum, German-born designer Julia Lohmann has arranged five towering kelp sculptures in a precise circle for the exhibition More than Human. Their translucent skins stretch tightly across intricate ribbed frameworks, resembling unfamiliar aquatic creatures brought up from the deep ocean floor. Titled Kelp Council, the striking installation invites viewers to imagine a gathering of marine organisms actively discussing the precarious condition of their environment, while welcoming museum visitors to step inside and join the ongoing conversation.
As contemporary designers increasingly turn to seaweed and other marine resources as sustainable alternatives to conventional materials, Lohmann raises a profound and critical question about the delicate ecosystems that ultimately supply them. What happens to vulnerable natural habitats when a biological resource suddenly becomes the focus of surging industrial demand? Through her thought-provoking sculptures and ongoing material experiments, the designer considers how the broader field of design might work harmoniously with nature while fully accounting for the complex living systems that make its materials possible in the first place.
From Animal Bodies to Tangible Natural Materials
Julia Lohmann’s deep-seated interest in the origins of everyday materials and the hidden supply chains of modern manufacturing began long before her pioneering experiments with marine algae. In 2004, she created the Waltraud Cow-Bench, a leather-covered piece of furniture intentionally shaped to resemble a reclining cow. By returning a familiar, heavily processed commercial material directly to the anatomically recognizable form of the animal it originally came from, she deliberately drew public attention to a biological and ecological relationship that typically disappears entirely during industrial production and retail packaging.
This critical design philosophy eventually led her toward the uncharted potential of marine flora. During a transformative 2013 residency at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, she founded the Department of Seaweed, a collaborative research initiative dedicated to exploring the physical properties of kelp and its diverse, untapped applications in contemporary design. Working hand-in-hand with marine scientists, biochemists, and other technical specialists, the designer began developing innovative material techniques that would intentionally allow the natural characteristics of seaweed to physically shape her sculptural forms rather than forcing the material into rigid, human-dictated geometries.
When Kelp Shapes Its Own Structure
In works such as Kombu Ahtola (2020), pieces of raw seaweed are carefully stretched between the structural ribs of a flexible rattan framework. As the kelp slowly dries in the open air, it naturally contracts, powerfully pulling the supporting structure into its own organic, curved shape. In this unique manufacturing process, the material itself actively helps determine the sculpture’s final geometry, introducing a welcome and unpredictable degree of natural agency into the making process.
Her expansive Hidaka Ohmu pavilion, also presented in 2020, successfully brings these material experiments up to a true architectural scale. Measuring approximately six meters across, the sweeping structure is entirely covered in translucent seaweed panels that softly filter natural daylight into its curved, cavernous interior. Visitors are invited to move freely through the immersive installation, experiencing firsthand the unusual tactile texture, subtle scent, and striking physical presence of a living material that is far more commonly associated with distant ocean tides than with interior architecture.
Designing with the Needs of Other Species in Mind
Thriving kelp forests support extraordinarily complex marine ecosystems, providing essential habitats, breeding grounds, and protection for countless aquatic species. While seaweed undoubtedly offers deeply promising possibilities for the development of sustainable, biodegradable materials, expanding its cultivation and commercial harvesting introduces profound ecological questions that cannot be ignored. Lohmann’s rigorous research carefully considers how these vital resources might be utilized responsibly while actively preserving and protecting the fragile marine environments that sustain them.
The Kelp Council installation brings this urgent conservation concern into a more speculative and imaginative setting. By visualizing marine organisms gathered together around a metaphorical discussion table, Lohmann asks whose interests and well-being truly enter into the decisions humanity makes regarding natural resources and industrial expansion. Her captivating sculptures offer a tangible, physical expression of an overarching idea that seamlessly connects her early furniture experiments with her ongoing seaweed research: that the true future of sustainable design depends just as heavily on how we respectfully obtain our materials as it does on what we ultimately choose to manufacture from them.
