In biology, lipids serve as the principle organizing molecule in membranes. Membranes are essential to life, serving as cellular barriers, the point of interaction for cellular recognition events, and home to important biological processes such as photosynthesis and cell signaling through non equilibrium organization. Biohybrid and bioinspired membrane materials have been demonstrated as useful frameworks for investigating complex biological processes under controlled conditions (i.e. composition, pH, temperature, ionic strength) as well as for applications ranging from diagnostic and therapeutic delivery vesicles to catalysis and environmental treatment, etc. In this talk, I will describe membrane materials built upon natural lipids and synthetic polymer amphiphiles and our ability to control organization and activity toward investigating complex biological processes such as photosynthetic light-harvesting as well as understanding underlying principles that govern the utility of such materials for technology applications such as those described above.