Designers often say they’re inspired by nature – its colors, textures, and forms. But The Mindcraft Exhibition 2025 looks deeper, beyond appearances, into the quiet systems that make nature work. Geometry, balance, and physics all form part of nature’s underlying logic – and that’s precisely what this year’s exhibition explored. Held at The Lab in Copenhagen, The Mindcraft Project brought together 10 Danish designers who saw nature not just as inspiration, but as instruction.

Led by Copenhagen Design Agency (CDA), The Mindcraft Project invited Danish designer and curator Pil Bredahl to curate this year’s exhibition. Known for her thoughtful engagement with both material and meaning, Bredahl brought a fresh, investigative lens to the role of design in shaping our collective future. “What makes Pil unique is her ability to draw on Denmark’s deep knowledge of material and craft, whilst having an unwavering devotion towards the power of innovation and radical thinking as a driver of change,” shared Anders Kongskov and Kristian Kastoft, founders of CDA and co-directors of The Mindcraft Project. Under her direction, this year’s edition became less about what nature looks like – and more about what it teaches us.

Throughout the exhibition, the connection to nature revealed itself not through imitation, but through interpretation. Each of the 10 participating designers explored the systems found within the natural world – modular growth patterns, geometric repetition, and organic imperfection – translating them into new forms and materials. The result is a collection alive with rhythm and structure: objects that expanded, repeated, or evolved like organisms. Some drew directly from nature’s efficiency and modularity, while others embraced its irregularities, using raw textures and hand-formed details to mirror the tension between control and chance.

“This year’s exhibition displays works in materials from the mineral kingdom, to soil, glass, wood, and textile, all in different stages of man-made processing. All the selected exhibitors have their personal aesthetic language where they translate ancient knowledge through modern and relevant craft and design,” says Pil Bredahl, curator of The Mindcraft Exhibition 2025.

The exhibitors in this year’s presentation included: Ahm x Lund, Anne Brandhøj, Anne Dorthe Vester, Bendixen & Baruël, Hilda Piazzolla, Jeppe Søndergaard, Kasper Kjeldgaard, Kasper Kyster, Lærke Lillelund, and Morten Klitgaard.

“We believe that by embracing new technology and joining it with the wisdom of the hand, we can create objects that are echoes of wilderness, nature and forest – objects that can guide us towards new lighting landmarks and rethink what a lamp – and light, can look like.” – Ahm + Lund

“Working with solid wood brings both constraints and possibilities that I thrive on. I love working within the rules that timber sets, while constantly pushing the boundaries of scale, volume, and proportion. There’s a presence, a weight, and a tactile richness in solid wood that nothing else can quite replicate.” – Anne Brandhøj

“I am still in the process of becoming familiar with the final design myself. For that reason, I welcome visitors to approach these pieces with a similar sense of reflection and openness. Ideally, they recognise both the efficiency of the construction and the sculptural qualities of the form, and sense how industrial processes can coexist with a more crafted, expressive character.” – Anne Dorthe Vester

“The process is very intuitive in relation to the branches – each of them have their own shape, and the spatial and poetic potential of each is different. We consider each branch as a unique shape and being, and at the same time we group them into types – each with their own logic, but always with variety. We reflect on how to understand this; the uniqueness vs the consistency of these natural structures.” – Bendixen & Baruël

“This collection is an exploration into infill patterns, where they are exposed as the primary structure. While in plastic they print with machine-like precision, clay introduces softness, weight, and unpredictability.” – Hilda Piazzolla

“By firing at high temperatures, the materiality of the brick is set free to transform as it pleases. What was once rigid becomes playful forms and surfaces, returning to the natural state it came from.” – Jeppe Søndergaard

“One similarity between these two projects is that they both originate from working with the mobilé. I work a lot with the relationship between abstract and functional design. These two objects are functional results born out of abstract process.” – Kasper Kjeldgaard

“Modularity has always fascinated me, and I have explored it before, though not to this extent. I find it fascinating how repeating the same component can result in vastly different outcomes. It’s a bit like Lego – or, if you go way back, the brick. I know my design doesn’t have the full flexibility of Lego, but perhaps this is where my role as a designer comes in, guiding the functional and aesthetic outcomes.” – Kasper Kyster

“I think it is interesting to see work that contains a sense of mystery into how it is put together and the craftsmanship behind a piece of art or design. I hope that visitors can touch and explore these pieces and learn about the techniques and materials I have used in creating them.” – Lærke Lillelund

“This presentation draws on the tradition of cabinets of curiosities once found in royal collections around the world – displays that showcased unusual natural specimens and artefacts brought back from early explorations by the Western world. In reinterpreting this format, Aragonit offers a subtle commentary on how we continue to frame nature as something exotic, rare, and mysterious.” – Morten Klitgaard

In the end, The Mindcraft Exhibition 2025 reaffirmed what Danish design has long understood: progress doesn’t come from resisting nature, but from learning alongside it. Through experimentation, material sensitivity, and a deep respect for process, the exhibition invited us to see design as a living system – one that evolves, adapts, and will always endure.

To learn more about The Mindcraft Exhibition 2025 and its featured designers, visit mindcraftproject.com.

Photos by Benjamin Lund for The Mindcraft Project.

As the Senior Contributing Editor, Vy Yang is obsessed with discovering ways to live well + with intention through design. She’s probably sharing what she finds over on Instagram stories. You can also find her at vytranyang.com.