Samples of woven cotton cloth dyed with mud (vouwo), Adama Séré - Marka-Dafing master dyer, 2020. Photo: Salif Sawadogo 2020
Exhibition and Talks
»Fermenting Textiles« explores the fermentation of textiles in mud and plant material. The exhibition at Art Laboratory Berlin connects anthropology, microbiology, and art through the engagement of artisans, anthropologists, scientists, and artists and mirrors the multi-species collaborations that are integral to the mud dyeing process.
more
Douny, Laurence (2024). Degumming process - cooking the cocoons. The British Museum. Image: https://doi.org/10.25420/britishmuseum.27960084.v1
Publication Project by Laurence Douny and Salif Sawadogo
For centuries, Indigenous wild silks have been traded across West Africa and used in Marka-Dafing’s textiles production in the Mouhoun regions of Burkina Faso. Over the past twenty years, the precious materials that are used by women for weaving their ceremonial wrappers called tuntun, which stands as their material identity, have become a scarce resource due to climate change and human impact on both the insect species and their ecosystem. The publication project by Cluster members Laurence Douny and Salif Sawadogo, as well as Lonsani Dayo and Abdoulaye Séré, aims at co-constructing digital documentation of wild silk production with close involvement of Marka-Dafing communities.
more
Folgenbild Syntopische Architekturen, 2024. Käferbefallenes Fichtenholz, Foto: Pelin Asa, MPIKG, adaptiert von MoA.
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.
more
Still »Change by Design«. Copyright: ARTE.tv
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!
more
Bi-Leaf - Morphology of a Movement, Antonia Dönitz, Master Thesis Textile and Material Design, 2024. Image Copyright: Antonia Dönitz / weißensee school of art and design
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«.
more
Visit Bauhaus Earth, 15 July 2024. Copyright: Matters of Activity
On July 15th, 2024, members from Bauhaus Earth and the research group »Architectural Yarns« exchanged common ideas and current projects with mutual visits to MoA's Activarium and the Marienpark Lab of Bauhaus Earth. The goal was to foster an exchange of ideas for potential collaborations, emphasizing the shared goals and innovative approaches in sustainable architecture and material design. Key overlapping areas of interest include the reuse of materials, circular resources, economic potentials, and rethinking aesthetics in housing, and building culture.
more
Thermography shows the effect of shading and the influence of solar radiation on surface temperatures. Copyright: Maxie Schneider
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?
more
MidJourney generated AI images for the prompts »architectured material across scales«, »topological interlocking«, »elastic instabilities« by Charlett Wenig | Poster Design: Node Berlin Oslo
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.
more
Samples of Flax Fiber Bundles as a precursor for Architectural Yarns, adapted by Node Berlin/Oslo. Copyright: Maxie Schneider, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, weißensee school of art and design, Matters of Activity
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.
more
Natalija Miodragović and Daniel Suárez at the UIA 2023. Photo: Andrija Mihailović. Copyright: Matters of Activity
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«.
more
»Textile Gestures - Mapping Tactile Practices with Architectural Yarns«, Hand-on Workshop at Bauhaus Study Rooms. Copyright: Thomas Meyer
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.
more
Copyright: Mina Mahouti
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.
more
Round Table »On Fibres amd Mixtures«. Foto: Michelle Mantel. Design: studioeins, adapted by »Matters of Activity«
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.
more
Design: studioeins, adapted by MoA. Photo: Michelle Mantel
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.
more
Poster Material Legacies. Image: Dietrich Polenz and the Experimental Surgery Lab, 2020
Exhibition at Kunstgewerbemuseum
The exhibition »Design Lab #13: Material Legacies« at Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin explored contingencies and ruptures between traditional crafts and the most recent developments at the crossroads of material research, design, engineering, and architecture. It brought together artifacts from the museum’s collection with work-in-progress installations by designers and researchers from the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« in order to initiate a dialogue about the historical, contemporary, and future conditions under which materiality unfolds.
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
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
Scaling Nature (1): Wrinkles«: Liquid Lacquer. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin / Luis Magg | Bacterial cellulose curtain. Copyright: Bastian Beyer and Iva Rešetar
»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«.
more
Scaling Fiber: Experimental Yarn. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin
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.
more
Poster Online Lecture Series »Talking Matters«, Copyright: Lucius Fekonja, Bastian Beyer, Iva Rešetar, adapted by NODE Berlin
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.
more
Can Bacteria Spin a Yarn? Kick-Off event »MitWissenschaft/ WeSearch«, Humboldt Forum Berlin, 29 April 2021. Copyright: Humbolt Forum
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.
more
Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Pliable Architecture (2021), Copyright: Hella Jongerius / VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio.
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.
more
Poster Weaving Practices, Copyright: Matters of Activity
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.
more
Elena Eulitz, Extension Charm (2019/2020. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin
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.
more
»The Bark Project«, Charlett Wenig. Copyright: Patrick Walter, MPIKG
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).
more
Poster Workshop »Material as Environmental Device«. Copyright: Kristina Pfeifer »detail woven skin of Kurdish black tent« & Cécile Bidan »detail of bacterial cellulose biofilm«
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.
more
»Architectural Yarns«. Photo: Michelle Mantel. Copyright: Matters of Activity
The Research group »Architectural Yarns« explores the possibilities of ecological regeneration and repair in architecture through textiles – by making temporary, provisional structures from fibrous, biological materials. Some of these are plants such as flax or linen, which are being rediscovered as a building material in today´s ecological crisis. Others emphasize the temporality of textiles and their climate modulating qualities using Phase Change Materials to create soft structures and thermal boundaries in the interior space. Architectural Yarns are a design framework for temporal and adaptive textile interventions within existing built space that question fixed spatial arrangements and provide variability in (re)use.
more
Left: The Bark Sphere, Charlett Wenig with Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten I MPI-CI and Alexander Magerl, 2021
Middle: The Bark Project Flexibilized, Charlett Wenig with Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten I MPI-CI and Patrick Walter
Right: Charles Eisen’s allegorical engraving of the first hut (= Vitruvian hut). Frontispiece in: Marc Antoine Laugier, Essai sur l’architecture, Paris: Chez Duchesne […], 2. edition, 1755. ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Rar 1254, https://doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-128 / Public Domain Mark
»Syntopic Architectures« engages in structures for habitation, sourced from and embedded in the material cycles of a specific environment. The term ›syntopic‹ (noun: syntopy) has been coined by Luis Rene Rivas in 1964 and denotes the inhabitation of the same »macrohabitat« by »two or more related species«. It is a composition of the Greek words ›syn‹ meaning together and topos meaning place. To develop Syntopic Architectures thus means to create inhabitable structures with the place where they are built in.
more
Wild silk wrapper from the Marka Dafing in Safané, Burkina Faso (showing the sheen). Video still from the film installation at the exhibition »DAOULA | Sheen. West-African Wild Silk On Its Way« (Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin). Film installation by Thabo Thindi with film material from Salif Sawadog and others.
West-African Textile Craft Meets European Science and Design
Schematic drawing of a part of a warping board. Source: Joachim Jungius, »Texturæ Contemplatio«, fol. 55r; in: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek – Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek, Martin Fogel collection of Zettelkasten, folder: Ms XLII, 1923: delta 28 © Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek - Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek; Public Domain.
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
more
Open Space Event, 9 November 2023. Copyright: Matters of Activity
MoA's Showroom and Workspace | Currently on Winter Break
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« Thursdays, 2.00 pm – 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 [at] hu-berlin.de!
more
Willow installation of the »Structural Textile Project« by Natalija Miodragović, Nelli Singer and Daniel Suárez at the exhibition »Stretching Materialities«. Copyright: Matters of Activity
»Plektonik« is a transdisciplinary project between architects, textile designers, microbiologists, and material scientists, analyzing and prototyping loop-based material systems made from continuous and formable hybrid yarns.
more