This spring, a thought-provoking outdoor exhibition, Design X Nature, will activate the Australian Drylands Precinct at Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.
From 25 September to 18 October, Design X Nature turns the Gardens into a living gallery, inviting audiences to experience how natural systems can shape creative practice, material experimentation and ecological thinking.
Throughout the exhibition, visitors can deepen their experience through a series of walks, talks and workshops that expand the artwork themes and offer opportunities to engage directly with artists and experts.
The exhibition features new works by Courtney Coombs, Cara Johnson, Bethany Kiss and Soft Meadow Collective, each offering a distinct perspective on nature-led design.
Protective Measures by Courtney Coombs
Courtney Coombs makes art, writes, and facilitates to make sense of the world and their place in it. Employing queer-centric, anti-spectacular methodologies, they privilege periods of observing, thinking, feeling, learning, and unlearning as much as realising a final form, which often involves reimagining everyday encounters. Their minimally presented liaisons include objects, installations, two-dimensional works, moving images and sound, discourse, dialogue, and community building.
Pastures by Cara Johnson
Cara Johnson’s craft-based practice interrogate tensions and narratives connected to the ways land is treated and used through material, intention and invested labour. Her practice is entwined with her rural location, and primarily concerned with traversing the complexities between people and plants.
Peckable Architecture by Bethany Kiss
Bethany is a PhD researcher at the University of Melbourne working at the intersection of architecture and urban ecology. Her research asks how cities and buildings can be designed to actively support biodiversity. Drawing on a decade of Wildlife Victoria rescue data, Bethany maps how native species already use our buildings as habitat, and develops tools to help architects design for that cohabitation intentionally. Peckable Architecture has a satellite installation at Fed Square during exhibition dates.
Field Furniture by Soft Meadow Collective
The Soft Meadow Collective are multidisciplinary artists Sarah Lynch, Daniella Ruffino, and Adele Daniele, who are interested in plants, pollinators, biodiversity, and urban ecology. Established in 2022, the Collective collaborates with artists, musicians, urban ecologists, geographers, and landscape architects on projects to encourage a connection to nature.
Developed through a 2025 research lab residency at Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, the commissions reflect a unique cross-disciplinary collaboration between artists, designers and the Gardens’ scientific experts which fostered new ways of thinking about design, grounded in observation, research and environmental knowledge.
Historically, major design innovations have drawn inspiration from the natural world. Design X Nature continues this tradition, presenting contemporary responses to environmental challenges and demonstrating how creative practices can engage with ecological systems in meaningful ways.
Design X Nature offers a fresh way to explore the Gardens, bringing together art, research and environment to spark curiosity and inspire new ways of thinking about design and nature.
Design X Nature
Australian Drylands Precinct – Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Exhibition: 25 September – 18 October 2026
Free entry
For more information, visit: www.rbg.vic.gov.au for details.
Image: Nest – photo by Ricardo Simao