In a time when building construction is a significant contributor to multiple global crises, architect and educator Neri Oxman posits that nature can provide sustainable alternatives to conventional materials, tools, and methods. Her design philosophy, which she calls “material ecology,” looks to nature not only as a source of inspiration but also as a kind of collaborator. Working with the Mediated Matter Group she founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her New York–based studio, Oxman researches natural models to emulate and processes to use. A new exhibition, Nature × Humanity: Oxman Architects, on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) through May 15 and curated by Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, presents close to 40 of these nature-centered works produced from 2007 to the present. (Some projects were presented in a smaller show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2020, an exhibit cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic.)