Michael Pawlyn

About Michael Pawlyn Michael Pawlyn has been described as an expert in regenerative design and biomimicry. He established his firm Exploration Architecture in 2007 to focus on high performance buildings and solutions for the circular economy. Michael jointly initiated the widely acclaimed Sahara Forest Project; the latest version of which was opened by the King of Jordan in 2017. Exploration has also developed a ground-breaking office project, an ultra-low energy data centre, a zero waste textiles factory and progressive solutions for green cities. He started his career at Bennetts Associates in London before working for a year in Japan for Takao Endo Architects. In 1991 he joined Haworth Tompkins and was involved in a number of projects for the performing arts including The Royal Court Theatre and the Regents Park Open Air Theatre. Between 1997 and 2007 he worked with Grimshaw and was central to the team that designed the Eden Project. While at Grimshaw he led many of the projects that explored progressive approaches to environmentally sustainable design. He is regularly booked as a keynote speaker on innovation and has spoken at events for a wide range of organisations including Google, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Royal Society of Arts. His TED talk has had over 2 million viewings and has been subtitled in 32 languages. In 2019 Michael Pawlyn and Steve Tompkins co-initiated ‘Architects Declare a Climate & Biodiversity Emergency’ which has spread internationally to 28 countries, with over 7,000 companies signed up to a declaration of action. Since 2018 Michael has been increasingly providing advice to national governments and large companies on transformative change. His book Biomimicry in Architecture has been RIBA Publications’ best-selling international title. His latest book, titled Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency, co-authored with Sarah Ichioka, was published by Triarchy Press in December 2021 and has attracted plaudits from leading figures including Brian Eno, Roman Krznaric, Kate Raworth and Alice Rawsthorn. Exploration’s work has been displayed in a number of exhibitions including ‘The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area’ at San Francisco MOMA (2012), ‘Designing With Nature’ at The Architecture Foundation, London (2014), ‘Future Knowledge’ at Modern Art Oxford (2018) and ‘Learning from Nature’ (2020) at Museum of Design Atlanta. In 2022, Michael Pawlyn’s work will be included in a major exhibition titled ‘Biomimicry: Inspired by Nature’ which will start in Granada, Spain and then travel to Austria, Germany and Sweden. Key Talks: TED Talk (2010) Ellen MacArthur Foundation CE100 (2014) Energy Disruptors Unite (2019) Books: Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency (2021) by Sarah Ichioka and Michael Pawlyn Biomimicry in Architecture, 2nd ed. (2016) by Michael Pawlyn A New Dynamic 2: Effective Systems in a Circular Economy (2016) Chapter by Michael Pawlyn Website: www.exploration-architecture.com and www.flourish-thebook.com Twitter: @MichaelPawlyn Instagram: michaelpawlyn Author photos by Kelly Hill and Cecilie Bannow