Michael Pawlyn previously worked with Grimshaw's and set up Exploration architects in 2007. The practice focuses learning from nature, as he says nature has had a few million years of Research and Development. There are some very interesting projects dealing with water, energy and biodiversity on the site. Also see his talk on TED.
Two examples:
'The Las Palmas Water Theatre by Grimshaw ... the Namibian fog-basking beetle has evolved a way to create its own fresh water in a desert. This scheme employed similar ingenuity to take advantage of the sunny conditions, steady wind direction and cold seawater to create large amounts of desalinated water...'
'The World Water Headquarters project proposal ... a completely self-contained building that generates its own energy, is self-cooling and is a nett producer of distilled water in a desert location.'
Exploration Architecture
