Shaping nature - buildings and ecosystems

First future lab at the Bavarian Natural History Museum

Over the next few years, the new Bavarian Museum of Natural History will be built in the immediate vicinity of the Museum Mensch und Natur. It will build on the success story of the current museum and be a contemporary place of learning, experience and encounter. The Future Lab already gives a foretaste of this new museum, provides information about the current plans and gives an insight into topics that the new museum will give a stage to.

Exhibition Nature designed - Buildings and ecosystems

What strategies have animals developed to shape their environment according to their needs? What materials do they use for their constructions? How do construction activities affect their habitat - and what can we humans learn from this for our construction and production processes?

The first exhibition of the Zukunftslabor Naturkundemuseum Bayern illustrates that it is not only the human species that is capable of constructing complex and elaborate structures and buildings. Other animals have also developed ingenious techniques to catch prey or to protect themselves and their offspring from heat, cold or enemy attacks.

At the same time, the structures and growth processes of other creatures have always served as a source of inspiration and a model for human constructions. For example, the nests of various wasps made from a paper-like substance were the model for the development of industrial paper production from wood. Conversely, animals use human or man-made material for their constructions.

"Natur gestaltet" shows examples of how construction practices of different living beings are interwoven with each other and encourages reflection. Human forms of construction and production have a particularly serious impact on our planet and other living beings.

For more information about the exhibition, visit the website of the Natural History Museum of Bavaria.