Morphing Structural Materials – From Biology to Physics to Architecture

Matter is rarely completely static: often matter can morph. This is true for all living systems that grow, adapt, and change shape. Indeed, cells divide, leaves and fungi grow, octopuses transform, and wings reshape to control flight. But it is also true that bread rises and that pasta swells. While morphing is omnipresent in the living, it is not confined to it. Harnessing morphing capacities has many potential applications, from machines and robots to architecture.

The goal of this course from 1-5 September 2025, at CISM, the International Centre for Mechanical Sciences in Udine, Italy, is to review the current and fast-growing knowledge about structural materials that change shape or develop spontaneous internal stresses that improve their properties. The emphasis will be on potential applications in the built environment, from houses to infrastructures. The vision that led to the development of this course is that morphing will also increasingly impact our built environment, perhaps encompassing more sustainable solutions than what is common practice today.

Lecturers from physics, engineering, biomaterials science, and architecture, among them MoA members Peter Fratzl and Karola Dierichs, will cover this topic in an interdisciplinary way.

For more information and registration see CISM website.