Biodesign Challenge (BDC) and the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE) were holding an online symposium on November 11, 2020 to further the biodesign community in Europe. We hope to create a networked regional body that brings together practitioners, research institutions, and students to explore, share resources, and discuss teaching techniques.
To kick off the network, we were inviting speakers from across Europe to discuss their perspectives on biodesign. Also included have been short talks by BDC alumni about their projects and their design processes. The event was acting as a catalyst for subsequent workshops that have taken place in December 2021.
1:00 - 1:25pm (GMT)
Introductions from Martyn Dade-Robertson & Meng Zhang, Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Newcastle & Northumbria University (UK)
Daniel Grushkin, Biodesign Challenge (USA)
SESSION 1
1:25 - 2:15 pm (GMT)
Culina, 2020 BDC Student Team from the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (UK)
Marcos Cruz & Brenda Parker, Bio-ID, University College London (UK)
Carolina Obregon & Giovanna Danies Turano, Universidad de los Andes (Columbia)
SBARK - Shield of Spruce, 2020 BDC Student Team from Aalto University (Finland)
10 min break
SESSION 2
2:25 - 3:15 pm (GMT)
Svenja Keune, Swedish School of Textiles (Sweden)
Minima, 2018 BDC Student Team from École Boulle & CRI (France)
Clemens Winkler, Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany)
Cyanobiome, 2019 BDC Student Team from Zurich University of the Arts (Switzerland)
10 min break
SESSION 3
3:25 - 4:30 pm (GMT)
Anastasia Pistofidou, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, FabLab Barcelona, FabTextiles (Spain)
Eric Klarenbeek, ArTechLab Founder (Holland)
Closing Comments from Martyn Dade-Robertson & Meng Zhang, Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Newcastle & Northumbria University (UK)
Discussing the Future & Governance of our European Hub
To be facilitated by Martyn Dade-Robertson
Culina
Adrienne Dy, Dawoon Jeong, Emma Riley, Pippa Mcleod-Brown
Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (UK)
Project Description: The project imagines combining traditional agricultural and cooking techniques with synthetic biology to create a new type of kitchen within the built environment.
SBARK - Shield of Spruce
Megan Mcglynn, Chiaowen Hsu, Iines Jakovlev, Eveliina Juuri, Nina Riutta, Aarni Tujula
Aalto University (Finland)
Project Description: Shield of Spruce (SBARK) uses compounds from spruce bark to enhance fabric. Extracts from waste in the timber industry are embedded into cellulose fibers as a sustainable all-natural, UV-protective, and antibacterial finishing agent.
Minima
Instructor: Marguerite Benony
École Boulle & Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (France)
Project Description: Minima is a set of ceramic and glass tools, which senses DNA signatures using a blend of enzymes, nutrients, and specific DNA sequences. The result is a next-generation household appliance that produces a color-change reaction when a specific ingredient’s DNA signature is detected.
Cyanobiome
Jennifer Duarte, Michelle Schmid, Mara Weber
Zurich University of the Arts (Switzerland)
Project Description: A personal microbiome diagnostics kit allows users to detect concentrations of Bacillus subtilis in their gut by harnessing the bacterium’s unique ability to generate electrical current. The project seeks to empower people’s independence from the pharmaceutical industry and its products.
Martyn Dade-Robertson
Professor Martyn Dade-Robertson is the Professor of Emerging Technology at Newcastle University where he specialises in Design Computation with a special interest in Synthetic Biology and new material systems. Martyn is the Co-Director of the HBBE and has degrees in Architectural Design, Architectural Computation and Synthetic Biology and is the author of over 30 peer reviewed publications including the book: The Architecture of Information published by Routledge in 2011. He is currently the editor for the forthcoming Routledge book series Bio Design. He has authored the first book in the series, ‘Living Construction’, which was published in October 2020.
Meng Zhang
Dr. Meng Zhang is an Associate Professor in Microbial Biotechnology at Northumbria University with a degree in Biotechnology, Masters degree in Health, Environment and Development. She was awarded an Overseas Research Scholarship by UK Universities to study for a PhD in Proteomics and followed by 8 year postdoctoral research position in Biocatalysis. She has published in a wide range of scientific areas, for example, omics studies on streptococcal pathogens and biocatalysts. More recently, Meng has established new interdisciplinary research interest, applying microbial biotechnology in the built environment, particularly in the fabrication of functionally graded biomaterials. She has been Co-I and Co-PI on several UK research council funded projects, and she is Co-leader for Living Construction theme in HBBE. Collaborating with Architects, Synthetic Biologist and Civil Engineers, she has published 11 peer reviewed articles on the related topics since 2014.
Daniel Grushkin
Daniel Grushkin is the founder and executive director of the Biodesign Challenge, an international student competition that partners artists, designers, and biologists to envision the future of biotechnology. He is a cofounder and former executive director of Genspace, a nonprofit community laboratory dedicated to promoting citizen science and access to biotechnology. Fast Company ranked Genspace fourth among the top 10 most innovative education companies in the world.
Dan was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where he researched the field of synthetic biology in 2013-2014. He was an Emerging Leader in Biosecurity at the UPMC Center of Health Security in 2014. As a journalist, he has reported on the intersection of biotechnology, culture, and business for publications including Bloomberg Businessweek, Fast Company, Scientific American and Popular Science.
Brenda Parker
Dr Brenda Parker is an Associate Professor in Sustainable Bioprocess Design within the Dept of Biochemical Engineering at UCL. Her postdoctoral research was conducted as part of the Algal Biotechnology Consortium at the University of Cambridge, and she has worked on applied phycology for the last 12 years. Her research is highly interdisciplinary, bringing together the fields of biotechnology, sustainability and design. Her recent work has focussed on the use of microalgae for remediation of heavy metal pollution. Together with Professor Marcos Cruz she directs a Masters programme in Bio-Integrated Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture.
Marcos Cruz
Professor Marcos Cruz is an Architect and Co-Director of Bio-ID at UCL, a cross-disciplinary research platform between architecture and biochemical engineering. His varied academic activity as an educator, designer and investigator has led to many publications and awards, including winning the acclaimed RIBA research award. His current research focuses on Poikilohydric Living Walls and the use of bioreceptive materials.
Carolina Obregón
Carolina Obregón is a sustainable fashion designer. She holds a Master’s degree in Fashion and Sustainability from Aalto University, in Helsinki, Finland. Her creative research centers on the intersection between Design and Biology from nano-structuring endemic Colombian fibers to working with microalgae and Spirulina complemented by biotechnologies, with a particular focus on all things sustainable. She worked for more than 15 years in the fashion industry in New York, Los Angeles, Guadalajara, and Bogotá. She is currently Design Assistant Professor at Universidad de Los Andes focusing on sustainable fashion and textiles, with a circular economy and disruptive thinking approach.
Giovanna Danies Turano
Giovanna is a biologist and microbiologist with a PhD in plant pathology from Cornell University. She currently works as an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture and Design at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia and her research focuses on Biodesign. In 2014 Giovanna received the Barbara McClintock Award at Cornell University which honors outstanding senior graduate students studying in the Plant Sciences and in 2019 received The L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award.
Svenja Keune
Svenja Keune holds a BA and MA in textile design from the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg where she focused on the potentials of merging textiles with electronics to create ‘communicative surfaces` and explore ‘poetic interactions’ between textile surfaces, objects and people. During her phd project “On Textile Farming” within the MSCA ArcInTexETN she turned towards seeds as a potential biological alternative, and as a dynamic material for textile design.
In order to explore alternative ways of living that the textile plant hybrids might propose, Svenja built and moved into a Tiny House on Wheels to live together with the research experiments. Her current interests include post-anthropocentric perspectives to textile and spatial design, additive manufacturing, multi-species relationships, design ethics, permaculture design processes, plant cultivation and biology.
Svenja Keune is a postdoctoral researcher at the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, in Sweden and at the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation in Copenhagen, where she is currently working on 'Designing and Living with Organisms (DLO)’, a 3 year project funded by an international postdoc grant from the Swedish Research Council.
Clemens Winkler
Clemens Winkler is a Designer, Artist, Researcher and Lecturer working at the intersection of ephemeral material processes and actual socio-technological, scientific and geopolitical dynamics, addressing principles from biology, quantum physics and artificial intelligence.
As a Design Researcher at the interdisciplinary Cluster of Excellence «Matters of Activity» at the Humboldt University Berlin, he is mediating natural phenomena on various scales, such as microscopic and planetary weather events, through forms of capturing, preserving, collecting, describing, letting go, intensifying and archiving.
Clemens sees the relevance for design practitioner to keep their tools handy when confronted with current connectedness in transdisciplinary debates.
He has exhibited internationally and taught as a lecturer for several years in the »Interaction Design« department at Zurich University of the Arts, and as a guest lecturer at »University of the Underground«, Sandberg Institute Amsterdam, and the »Material Futures« Department at Central Saint Martins College London, mediating between material activities and design possibilities.
He studied at the Royal College of Arts London, MIT Media Labs Boston, Berlin University of the Arts and University of Art and Design Burg Giebichenstein Halle.
Anastasia Pistofidou
Anastasia Pistofidou is a Greek Architect currently working at Fab Lab Barcelona/IAAC as the Fab Textiles and Fabricademy Director, specialized in hardware development, rapid prototyping and design to production applied to textiles and Fashion. With an architecture degree from AUTH Aristotle University, Thessaloniki and a Master Degree from IAAC, (Fabbots 2011) she worked at Fab Lab Barcelona applying digital fabrication technologies to installations, artistic creations, prototyping, architecture, furniture, interiors, exhibitions and products.
She developed a personal applied research line on textiles, soft architectures and innovative materials : fabtextiles.org. Experimenting with new materials and processes, combining digital fabrication techniques and crafts, her work is demonstrating how new technologies can shift the massive consumption of fast fashion to a customized, personal and local fabrication applied on education and every day life. In 2017 she co-founded Fabricademy, Textile and Technology academy, a 6 month course that runs in various fab labs of the world with a special focus on the implications and applications of digital fabrication in the textile and fashion industry.
Eric Klarenbeek
Eric Klarenbeek graduated in 2003 at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Since then he has designed for clients such as Davidoff, Droog, Moooi, Studio Makkink & Bey, the city of Amsterdam, the provinces Utrecht and Gelderland and the Ministry of the Netherlands. Besides his studio activities, he gives lectures, has been a tutor at the Master of Architecture in Tilburg, Product Design and Fine Art at the ArtEZ academy Arnhem and he's founder of the ArTechLab, a researchlab at the ArtEZ Art Academy Enschede, www.artechlab.nl. His projects have been exhibited and published extensively,
His studio, 'The Designers of the Unusual' does special projects, or let's say the unusual, for unusual people, projects or purposes. “My work is characterized by interaction and innovation. My products can be in motion, react on our presence or respond on developments in our society. I search for new meaning and principles in objects, for unexplored connections between materials, production methods, makers and users. Scale and appliance are irrelevant. I've designed jewelry, but also developed concepts to connect tourists to local craftsmen”, says Eric.
Connect to the Biodesign Regional Hub - Europe through LinkedIn here
Watch the presentations on our YouTube Page here
The Biodesign Symposium is organised between the Biodesign Challenge (Daniel Grushkin, Veena Vijayakumar & Alexandra Kisielewski) and the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (Professor Martyn Dade-Robertson, dr Meng Zhang, Thora H Arnardottir & Peter Style)