Neue Podcast-Folge der Serie »Exzellent Erklärt« mit Karola Dierichs und Robert Stock
In Folge 48 der Podcastserie »Exzellent Erklärt« erwartet die Zuhörer:innen ein inspirierender Austausch zu der Frage, wie die Materialien, die in der direkten Umgebung und ihren Kreisläufen vorkommen, das Bauen der Zukunft mitgestalten können. Journalistin Larissa Vassilian hat mit Cluster-Mitgliedern Karola Dierichs und Robert Stock über ihr Projekt »Syntopic Architectures« gesprochen, das darauf abzielt, natürliche Strukturen in die Architektur zu integrieren, die in Verbindung zu dem Ort stehen, an dem gebaut wird. Ein Beispiel dafür ist das Arbeiten mit Käferholz, also mit Holz, das vom Borkenkäfer befallen wurde.
Claudia Mareis Contributes as an Expert to an ARTE Documentary on Sustainable Design
For all our German and French-speaking friends we have a special treat: ARTE TV visited us and made our Co-Director Claudia Mareis and »Matters of Activity« part of a documentation about sustainable fashion and of course design. English subtitles as well as other languages are also available, so don’t miss it!
Student Projects On View in Collaboration with »Matters of Activity«
On July 20th and 21st, 2024, 12.00–8.00 pm, weißensee school of art and design berlin will open its studios for the traditional Open House. Also this year, there will be the opportunity to learn more about the design research projects and students’ works developed during the previous year, some of them in cooperation with or in classes led by researchers of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«.
Workshop Series at Futurium
Gestaltet das Futurium Lab selbst mit! In der öffentlichen Workshopreihe »OPEN LAB ABEND: Materialzukünfte besuchen« spekulierten Teilnehmende darüber, aus welchen Materialien die Welt von morgen gemacht sein könnte. Die Workshopreihe umfasste 4 Termine und fand von März bis Juni im Futurium statt. Forschende von »Matters of Activity« (MoA) gaben Einblick in ihre Arbeit. Davon ausgehend entwickelten Teinehmende Zukunftsszenarien und gestalteten Prototypen, die im Anschluss zusammen mit Objekten aus der MoA-Forschung im Lab ausgestellt wurden. Begleitet wurden Teilnehmende dabei vom spekulationserfahrenen Team von »CollActive Materials«.
It’s getting hot in here... In diesem ersten Workshop ging es darum, wie wir mit smarten Materialien die Städte der Zukunft gestalten können. Im Sommer machen steigende Temperaturen, Metall und Beton das Leben in der Innenstadt für alle Bewohnenden immer mehr zur Herausforderung. Welche Materialien schaffen Abhilfe in überhitzten Städten?
Registration is Closed
The workshop on December 13th and 14th will bring together scientists, engineers, architects and designers. The goal is to discuss the role of structure in (re-)defining active and adaptive material properties from the nanoscale to the dimensions of a building. The workshop will include renowned international speakers, as well as researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Potsdam, the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Actvity« as well as the weissensee school of art and design berlin. All places are already fully booked.
Activating Circular Networks Goes Berlin Science Week 2023
How can we deal with the complexities of transitioning to a bio-economy in which natural fiber could play a major role? The second event in the »Activating Circular Network« series unfolded on November 8th, 2023 as a pivotal part of MoA Berlin Science Week. The aim of the organizers Lucy Norris, Khashayar Razghandi, and Hanna Wiesener was to bring together diverse actors — researchers, designers, entrepreneurs, activists and artists — to explore the complexities of transitioning to a bio-economy of natural fibres.
Two MoA Research Groups Presented their Projects at the World Congress of Architecture in Copenhagen
More than 6000 participants from 135 countries, 150 sessions, 250 science papers & 400 speakers came together this month in Copenhagen for the World Congress of Architecture – all with one goal: Sustainable Futures – Leave No One Behind! Also from »Matters of Activity«, two research groups contributed to this important event for architects and the building industries: Natalija Miodragović, Daniel Suárez, Nelli Singer presented their project »Plektonik - Active Yarns for Adaptive Loop-Based Material Systems«. This research investigates contemporary textile techniques and plant-based ›active‹ yarns to describe a new material system and fabricate lightweight structural prototypes. Second, Aurélie Mosse, Daniel Suárez, and Bastian Beyer gave insights into their preprint »Towards a Bacterially-Induced Textile Architecture«.
Hand-on Workshop at Bauhaus Study Rooms
The Architectural Yarns research group at »Matters of Activity« has been hosting a hands-on workshop on tactile knowledge in performative research at the Bauhaus Study Rooms 2023.
During the one-day workshop, a group of 45 international students from Bauhaus Foundation Dessau, Coop Design Research of the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences explored, verbalized and mapped tactile practices and textile gestures with large-scale yarns made of natural fibers. By investigating reconfigurable textile techniques with yarn samples, insights into collective design and construction processes of fiber-based materials such as ›Architectural Yarns‹ were gained.
New Cluster Event Series Critically Explores Material Sustainability Concepts
Transforming linear economies into resource, energy, and more-than-human friendly processes means to bridge different areas of expertise. Ongoing discussions in different Cluster research groups such as MFF, Filtering, Weaving etc. have shown the importance of involving the perspectives of various actors, practitioners and experts into further research processes. Promising solutions and insights for a new material economy and culture are facing similar problems when it comes to transfer them from laboratory to the market. (Material) engineers, designers and activists face numerous challenges in expanding their activities, be they technological, political, economic or social. Kicking-off in June 2023, a new series of events will connect members of the Cluster interested in critically exploring material sustainability concepts with different practitioners and stakeholders from outside the Academy, and foster knowledge exchange in both directions.
At Kunstgewerbemuseum on 23 February
The Round Table »On Fibers and Mixtures« was part of the format series accompanying the exhibition »Design Lab #13: Material Legacies« at Kunstgewerbemuseum and at the same time its closing event. The Round Tables represented each of the exhibiting projects and the involved researchers and artists in a moderated dialogue with guests from different disciplines. The format brought a variety of perspectives to the exhibited works, its material legacies, and entangled discourses and invites the public to engage. On February 23rd, Professor for material design and Cluster Member Christiane Sauer discussed their work with Emanuele Coccia, Peter Fratzl, and Beatriz Morales, moderated by architect and Cluster Member Iva Rešetar.
Transdisciplinary Hands-On Workshop at Kunstgewerbemuseum on February 18
Initiated by the »Architectural Yarns« Research Group at the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material«, the Workshop FIBROUS EXCHANGE revisits the Work Exotica III by Ritzi Jacobi and takes inspiration for a transdisciplinary exchange between textile design, materials science and architecture. During a hands-on exploration with off-the-loom textile techniques, we seek to transfer knowledge from the different disciplines into an architectural context. We take a closer look at plant fibers and various reversible binding techniques to explore large fiber bundles as the basis for a new construction method - Architectural Yarns.
Exhibition at Kunstgewerbemuseum
By engaging with a series of different materials and techniques the exhibition encompassed both the problematization of unsustainable pasts and presents as well as the imagination of speculative material futures. Taking materiality as a starting point, each of the exhibits investigated its sociocultural, economic, and political context in order to disentangle the multiple interrelations that arise from and with materials. more
»Talking Matters« Event on 11 October Focused on this Ancient Cultural Technique
We were very happy to invite to our »Talking Matters« lecture on October 11th as an on-site event in the Sophienstraße. With our guest César Enrique Giraldo Herrera, Social Anthropologist from the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research in Bremen, we had an inspiring discussion about »Winding intentionalities and the harmony of ropes«.
Final Review on 13 July 2021
The MoA Design Research Studio »Scaling Fiber: Experimental Yarn« explored the upscaling of fiber into yarns as structural elements for the architectural scale and context. It was carried out as a transdisciplinary exchange between architecture, textile technology, materials science and cultural studies aiming at new concepts for sustainable design technologies.
Online Lecture Series of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«
On Tuesday, May 18th, 2021, »Matters of Activity« launched the online lecture series »Talking Matters«, in which external speakers from various disciplines were invited by the six cluster projects to provide insights into their research, which is related to central issues of »Matters of Activity«. In addition to researchers and students from various disciplines, the lecture series was open to anyone interested in our research.
Cluster Members Opened Event Series »MitWissenschaft/ WeSearch« at the Humboldt Forum
On Thursday, April 29th, 7–9:30 pm, members of the Cluster gave insights into the research of »Matters of Activity« in an interactive live show, thus opening the event series »MitWissenschaft/ WeSearch« at the Humboldt Forum.
Using concrete examples from the Cluster projects »Weaving« and »Filtering«, MoA members Bastian Beyer, Alwin Cubasch, Peter Fratzl, Regine Hengge, Claudia Mareis, Léa Perraudin, Christiane Sauer and Wolfgang Schäffner showed how the natural sciences, the humanities and the design disciplines work closely together to find innovative solutions to contemporary problems.
Essay by Regine Hengge and Karin Krauthausen on the Occasion of the Exhibition »Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos« Published
Regine Hengge's and Karin Krauthausen's essay »The Event of Fibre« has been published in the volume accompanying the exhibition »Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos« which was shown in Berlin's Gropius Bau from April 29th to September 15th, 2021.
Whether in DNA interactions, bacterial biofilms or city architectures, weaving can be a model for different and relational »ecologies of life«. Ranging across artistic practices, cell biology, and human forms, molecular biologist Hengge and cultural historian Krauthausen (both Project »Weaving«) examine what we can learn from nature's enmeshed processes.
An Online Workshop on 29 October 2020
Weaving is an ancient practice that is found across cultures. It commonly designates a technique of making surfaces by interlacing two sets of materials that cross each other at a right angle. However, weaving as a manual, mechanical or digital technique of entanglement applies to a broad variety of vegetal, animal or synthetic materialities brought together to form a fabric by use of a frame such as a loom. Furthermore, weaving practices may also introduce hybrid techniques such as knitting, plaiting and braiding. This one-day, practice-based, interdisciplinary workshop brought together specialists who will highlight concepts and practices of weaving from various angles by emphasizing specific techniques, technologies, materials, patterns and design.
Experimental Yarns Workshop / Part 1 on 16 October 2020
Experimental Yarn was planned as an interdisciplinary exchange on the idea of fibers and yarn: How are fibers and yarns being formed and how do they perform inside a material system. By discussing and comparing approaches from specific disciplines - Textile Technology, Biomaterials and Design - we aimed to transgress the disciplinary boundaries and explore new fields for research and application.
Members Charlett Wenig and Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten Were Awarded 2nd Place at Idea Competition of »Die Junge Akademie« for »The Bark Project«
The MoA research group »Adaptive Fibrous Materials« is interested in interactions between biological material and its environment. The fact that plants are sessile make them particularly interesting regarding their adaptability and optimization strategies – there is no way for them to escape. Remodeling processes, such as those found in the animal kingdom, are absent and adaptation takes place by growth. The junior research group is jointly funded by »Matters of Activity« and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Surfaces (MPIKG).
A Zoom Workshop on 10 September 2020
The workshop »Material as Environmental Device« on September 10th, 2020 gathers researchers and practitioners from the fields of architecture, ecological anthropology and the natural sciences to discuss the status of the material as an active element of environmental design on the basis of past and contemporary buildings and current research in the Cluster »Matters of Activity«. Three thematic sessions – »Materials and Environments«, »Essential Material« and »Active Skins« – focus on different aspects of material activity, addressing design and production techniques, ecological and cultural implications and the prospects of climate-responsive architectures.
Myko.Plektonik: Scaffold for Fungal Growth
The project explores the growth of fungal mycelium on the »Plektonik« structural textiles and aims at imagining the transformation of our future living by designing in co-operation with plants and fungi and by bringing the biological and the built environment in an interdependent relationship
MoA's Showroom and Workspace
With the »Activarium«, we want to actively engage with potential partners from the industry, start-ups, NGOs, politics and society as a whole to initiate an exploratory exchange on active materials, bio- & culture-inspired innovation as well as sustainability approaches. We want visitors to experience our prototypes to make MoA’s intentions and research tangible and accessible. The »Activarium« serves as a work-in-progress showcase of different research strands and processes. Our visitors can dive into the research as it's happening, before its published results.
Walk in and experience the »Activarium« Tuesdays, 10.00 am–12.15 pm or Thursdays, 2.00–4.00 pm! If you are a group of more than 5 people or if the opening hours do not fit your schedule, please contact us via moa.activarium@hu-berlin.de to schedule a visit!