Bio-inspired Folding Techniques Workshop
April 9, 2026
Speculative Life
Milieux Institute
Biolab
Speculative Life
Milieux Institute
Biolab
photo: Lucie Leroux
How can principles found in living systems inform the design of responsive and adaptive materials?
The Bio-inspired Folding Techniques workshop hosted at the Milieux Institute Speculative Life Biolab explored folding as a research-creation methodology at the intersection of design, engineering, and living systems. Led by Lucie Leroux in collaboration with Alice Jarry and Miranda Smitheram, the workshop approached folding not simply as a technique for producing forms, but as a performative and relational process.
The Bio-inspired Folding Techniques workshop hosted at the Milieux Institute Speculative Life Biolab explored folding as a research-creation methodology at the intersection of design, engineering, and living systems. Led by Lucie Leroux in collaboration with Alice Jarry and Miranda Smitheram, the workshop approached folding not simply as a technique for producing forms, but as a performative and relational process.
Participants experimented with paper and fabric structures inspired by processes of growth, locomotion, deployability, adaptation, and responsiveness. Through hands-on making, biological principles were translated into material behaviours, opening possibilities for soft and adaptive applications.
Rather than representing biological forms, the workshop asks what can be learned from the ways living systems move, transform, and respond to their environments, and how these principles might be materialized through design.
Rather than representing biological forms, the workshop asks what can be learned from the ways living systems move, transform, and respond to their environments, and how these principles might be materialized through design.
