The Edna Lawrence Nature Lab

The Nature Lab at the Rhode Island School of Design is a lending library of artifacts. Established almost a century ago, the collection saves and preserves almost anything from nature, from seashells to taxidermied animals to living plants, making them available to students and RISD faculty on loan.

Being Inspired

Edna W. Lawrence was a drawing instructor at RISD in the early 20th century who encouraged her students to take inspiration from the natural world. She herself traveled the globe, sketching people in the West Indies and the Mediterranean. She established the Nature Lab in 1937 to inspire students with the limitless patterns, structures, and processes of the natural world.

As a physical place, it is a very large room with antique-looking specimen cabinets on the periphery of the room, and some live animals, aquaria, tables and computers set up at the center. As a place of action, the Nature Lab allows for interaction with nature and supports creative inquiry and research. The classes held within the space allow students to contribute to the conversation as designers, drawing on elements of nature and patterns in science as a way to solve design problems in product development, fashion, and onward. 

• The Nature Lab Website - http://naturelab.risd.edu/
• Video. There's No Place Like Here: The RISD Nature Lab - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3n9c180tR0
• Nature Lab Photo Set - https://www.flickr.com/photos/objecked/sets/72157617793191385/