julia lohmann’s otherworldly kelp sculptures imagine a future beyond human-centered design

from leather-covered cow benches to towering kelp sculptures, julia lohmann questions how humans turn living organisms into design materials.

kat barandy November 7, 2026 4 min

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what if materials could shape their own design?

At London’s Design Museum, German-born designer Julia Lohmann arranged five towering kelp sculptures in a circle for the 2025 exhibition More than Human. Their translucent skins stretch across ribbed frameworks, resembling unfamiliar creatures brought up from the ocean floor. Titled Kelp Council, the installation imagines a gathering of marine organisms discussing the condition of their environment, with visitors invited to join the conversation.

As designers increasingly turn to seaweed as an alternative to conventional materials, Lohmann raises a question about the ecosystems supplying them. What happens when a natural resource becomes the focus of growing industrial demand? Through her sculptures and material experiments, she considers how design might work with nature while accounting for the living systems behind its materials.

three kelp sculptures by julia lohmann, two hanging and one standing, with the artist standing between two — Julia Lohmann, Kelp Council, London’s Design Museum, 2025 | image courtesy the designer

from animal bodies to natural materials

Julia Lohmann’s interest in the origins of everyday materials began long before her experiments with seaweed. In 2004, she created Waltraud Cow-Bench, a leather-covered piece of furniture shaped to resemble a reclining cow. By returning the familiar material to the form of the animal it came from, she draws attention to a relationship that typically disappears during production.

This thinking eventually led her toward marine algae. During a 2013 residency at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, she founded the Department of Seaweed, a collaborative research initiative exploring the properties of kelp and its potential applications in design. Working with scientists and other specialists, the designer began developing techniques that would allow the material’s natural characteristics to shape her sculptural forms.

close up of translucent seaweed panels stretched over a ribbed framework of a kelp sculpture — Julia Lohmann’s seaweed sculpture Hidaka Ohmu | image © Mikko Raskinen

when kelp shapes the structure

In Kombu Ahtola (2020), pieces of seaweed are stretched between the ribs of a rattan framework. As the kelp dries, it contracts, pulling the structure into its curved shape. The material helps determine the sculpture’s final geometry, introducing a degree of unpredictability into the making process.

Her Hidaka Ohmu pavilion, also presented in 2020, brings these experiments to an architectural scale. Measuring approximately six meters across, the structure is covered in translucent seaweed panels that filter light into its curved interior. Visitors can move through the installation, experiencing the unusual texture and physical presence of a material more commonly associated with the ocean.

dark brown leather-covered waltraud cow-bench shaped to resemble a reclining cow on a concrete floor — Julia Lohmann, ‘Waltraud’ Cow-Bench, MoMA, 2004 | image courtesy MoMA

designing with the needs of other species in mind

Kelp forests support complex marine ecosystems, providing habitats for numerous species. While seaweed offers promising possibilities for material development, expanding its cultivation and harvesting introduces ecological questions of its own. Lohmann’s research considers how these resources might be used while preserving the environments that sustain them.

Kelp Council brings this concern into a more speculative setting. By imagining marine organisms gathered around a discussion, Lohmann asks whose interests enter the decisions we make about natural resources. Her sculptures offer a physical expression of an idea that connects her early work with her ongoing seaweed research: that the future of sustainable design depends as much on how we obtain materials as on what we make from them.

large hidaka ohmu pavilion made of golden kelp panels in a grand room with tall windows — JuliaLohmann, Oki Naganode, V&A London, 2013 | image courtesy the designer

large kelp sculpture with multiple branches and openings, made of light brown seaweed panels, suspended in a white room — Julia Lohmann, Oki Naganode, MoMA, 2013 | image courtesy MoMA

julia-lohmann-kelp-sculptures-designboom-06a — Julia Lohmann, Hidaka Ohmu (2020) and Corpus Maris II (2023), Frankfurter Kunstverein, 2023 | image by Moritz Bernoully, © Frankfurter Kunstverein, courtesy the designer

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project info:

designer: Julia Lohmann

This article is part of designboom’s POSTHUMAN UTOPIAS chapter, exploring what happens when humans are no longer the measure of all things. These stories rethink our relationship with the planet through interspecies architecture, living materials, regenerative landscapes and emerging technologies – learn more here! The chapter is presented in partnership with INDX|GLOBAL – a global cultural platform placing Indian architecture, design, and creative intelligence in conversation with the world.

Each designboom editorial series explores one theme in depth through projects, interviews, features and news across architecture, design, art and technology. Discover more chapters here, and get in touch if you’d like to submit a story through our submissions portal or contact form.