Jenny E. Sabin, Principal and Founder of Philadelphia-based Jenny Sabin Studio, is an architectural designer, artist, and educator. Her work, in her words, “investigates the intersection of architecture and science, and applies insights and theories from biology and mathematics to the design of material structures.” Past projects include Branching Morphogenesis, a three-dimensional “datascape” made from 75,000 zip ties; Polymorph, a project exploring digital fabrication of ceramic form; and myThread Pavilion, a work commissioned by the Nike Flyknit Collective that transformed patterns of biological data into knitted structure.
Jenny Sabin Studio is one of the winners of the 2014 Architectural League Prize, one of North America’s most prestigious awards for young architects and designers. The prize, established in 1981, recognizes exemplary and provocative work by young practitioners and provides a public forum — through lectures, an exhibition, and a catalogue — for the exchange of their ideas.
In this interview, Sabin details the growth of her practice through experimental collaboration between scientists and designers. Interpreting the Prize’s theme of Overlay as an “active datascape,” Sabin presents three projects in a grid on the wall, a pattern inspired by the warp and weft of weaving. This curation of her work highlights the intersection of scientific practice — including cellular biology, ecology, and mathematics — and design, with complex principles and datasets modeled and visualized through textiles, ceramics, and more.
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