View a 360-degree tour of the Nature Lab by clicking on the image and dragging your cursor around.

The Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab is a unique resource that offers the opportunity to examine, explore and understand the patterns, structures and interactions of design in nature. Lawrence — an alumna and long-time RISD faculty member — founded the Nature Lab in 1937, and its collections have continued to grow, now numbering more than 80,000 natural history objects. Live animals and plants also thrive here and the facility includes a study room devoted to a natural history reference library and clipping file, archives of slides, tapes, videos and x-ray photographs. A computer and camera workstation, with dissecting and compound microscopes for viewing small specimens and prepared slide mounts, allows you to make digital or micro-photographic images. Certain objects may be borrowed for use in studios.

address: 13 Waterman Street
phone: 401 454-6451
e-mail: nature@risd.edu
hours: Monday-Thursday, 7:45am-10pm; Friday, 7:45am-6pm; Saturday, 9am-6pm; Sunday, 12-6pm; Wintersession, summer and holiday hours vary

class use: by appointment; call to schedule class use of the Nature Lab

2009 SYMPOSIUM: Design Science: Nature's Problem Solving Method
Co-Sponsored by the Nature Lab + Synergetics Collaborative
Art Show: 6-9 PM Thursday, November 12th, Waterman Gallery
Opening Reception: 5:30-7:30 PM Friday, November 13th, Waterman Gallery
Symposium: Saturday, November 14th + Sunday, November 15th, Metcalf Auditorium, Chace Center. For a complete program and to register, click here. RISD Faculty, staff + students register free. Click here to download detailed information, including program highlights and speakers.

COLLECTIONS + RESOURCES
The main floor of the Nature Lab is a studio space within an extensive natural history collection. The constantly growing collection contains shells, bones, insects, birds, mammals, reptiles, crustaceans, seedpods, pressed leaves, wood and feathers. Many of the specimens may be borrowed for use in studios.

The Arthur Loeb Design Science Collection
The Arthur Loeb Design Science Collection comprises hundreds of polyhedra and 2-dimensional patterns that complement one’s view of the natural world. The collection is intended for hands-on investigation by faculty, students and alumni. Through handling the models, examining the patterns and comparing them to natural specimens one can learn, first-hand,the underlying formal and structural relationships inherent in our material world. For more details, click here.

Study Room
Here is housed the clipping file, a small reference library, microscopic slide mounts and x-ray photos. Dissecting and compound microscopes are available for examining specimens. At the workstation for video and photo microscopy, moving and still images can be captured. A computer with Internet access supports these resources.

Winogradsky Columns
Installed in Room 12, these self-contained ecosystems produce colorful bacteria that can be sampled for observation and research.

Tiny Town
Our newest development houses specimens from the five kingdoms of life displayed in clear-acrylic and glass domiciles suitable for microscopic investigation.

Limited-access collections
Included here are minerals, an herbarium, skeletons, bones, birds, animal pelts in storage, skeletons and nature drawings made by Edna Lawrence as a student. These may be viewed by appointment.

Nature Lab Inhabitants
A small collection of live animals including birds, lizards, gerbils, turtles, fish, amphibians and plants call the Nature Lab home.

Nature Lab Staff
With a biologist as a curator and an artist as an assistant curator, the Nature Lab provides an environment — sustained by resources and guidance — for the exploration of connections between art, design and nature.