TOWARDS BIOTOPIA by Winy Maas

29 Apr 2026
06:00pm - 08:00pm
FREE
Location: 80.2.07

Join us for a public lecture led by Winy Maas, Co-Founder of the renowned international architecture and urbanism office MVRDV. TOWARDS BIOTOPIA is a bold vision for a living, evolving planet and a call to reimagine design, proposing a future where biology becomes the foundation of everything.

How can we transform our planet into a sustainable home for over 8 billion humans and countless other species? The lecture TOWARDS BIOTOPIA by Winy Maas is an invitation to dream and act: to imagine cities becoming forests, architecture growing like trees, and streets illuminated by bioluminescent lighting, alive with biodiversity. It envisions a world designed not just with nature, but as nature.

At the heart of this Biotopia lies the vision of a global Sponge: a dynamic biomatter architecture that cools, filters water, generates energy, and shelters life while adapting like a living organism. This biomatter grows, shrinks, and regenerates, creating a seamless, sustainable integration of biology and technology.

In his lecture, Winy Maas will discuss his research with TU Delft's think tank, The Why Factory, including studies such as Green Dip, Biodivercity, and Biotopia. He will also incorporate architectural projects that reflect this research, such as Rotterdam ROCKS! and Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Valley in Amsterdam, and La Serre in Paris. "Today, more than ever, everything is biology. Everything is nature," says Winy Maas. "What can we innovate, technically and spatially? How can natural sciences, automation, nanomaterials, robotics, biotechnology, and biomimicry contribute to establishing new relationships among humans and all other living organisms? Let's invent and dream. Let's imagine Biotopia."

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

TOWARDS BIOTOPIA by Winy Maas