Ausstellungsansicht, WEtransFORM, Foto: David Ertl, 2025 © Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Two Cluster Research Projects Contribute to the Exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn
We are delighted that two of the Cluster's research projects contribute to the exhibition »WEtransFORM. On the Future of Building« at Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, opening on June 5th, 2025. Fundamental design principles for a climate-friendly renewal of our building culture are on display with around 80 projects that deal with the challenges in an exemplary manner. Large-scale prototypes of the interdisciplinary research projects »Architectural Yarns« and »Structural Textiles« illustrate the potential of textile binding techniques such as knitting or weaving for flexible and reconfigurable architectural elements. Plant fibers from flax and willow, or biological materials such as fungal mycelium and wool, are processed into reconfigurable walls and components.
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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.
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Plektonik Structural Textiles column – continuous wooden ›Active Yarns‹ 40 mm diameter loops. Copyright: Daniel Suárez & Natalija Miodragović
Cluster Members Beyer, Miodragović, Mossé and Suárez Publish in Proceedings of the UIA World Congress of Architects Copenhagen 2023
The book provides new perspectives from leading researchers accentuating and examining the central role of the built environment in conceiving and implementing multifaceted solutions for the complex challenges of our understanding of planetary resources and circularity, revealing critical potentials for architecture and design to contribute in more informed and long-term ways to the urgent transition of our society. Bastian Beyer et. al. contributed with the article »Towards a Bacterially-Induced Textile Architecture« and Daniel Suárez and Natalija Miodragović an article on »Plektonik— Active Yarns for Adaptive Loop-Based Material Systems«.
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Bark by Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten and Willow Plektonik by »Structural Textile Project« of Natalija Miodragović, Nelli Singer and Daniel Suárez. Copyright: Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten
Conversation on Local Biomaterials as Design Innovators between Natalija Miodragović, Dr. Michaela Eder and Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten
Moderated by Dr. Manuel Rivera (RIFS) the Cluster Members Natalija Miodragović, Dr. Michaela Eder and Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten discuss bark, willow and wool in the panel »Conversation on Local Biomaterials as Design Innovators« during the exhibition »Examples to Follow!« on July 13th, 7.30 pm.
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Nelli Singer working on the knitted active structures. The design and geometry of the stitches within the knitted structure are responsible for the different reactions at increased moisture content Copyright: Nelli Singer 2020
Our warmest congratulations to Cluster Guest Researcher Nelli Singer who has been awarded two prestigious prices at once for her Master Thesis »Living Beings«. The Materialica Award 2021 of Munich Expo and the ein&zwanzig Design Newcomer Award of the German Design Council. »Living Beings« explores the performative properties of wood through textile techniques and enviromental humidity and was supervised by Cluster Member Christiane Sauer.
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MoA Exhibition »Stretching Materialities«. Copyright: Offshore Design
Hidden Activities in Objects and Spaces at Tieranatomisches Theater
Matter is dead? Objects are lifeless? Think again! In the exhibition »Stretching Materialities« the liveliness and activity of matter could be experienced in a completely new way. From September 16th, 2021 to March 4th, 2022, the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin became an interactive playground: an actual cloud levitated in the middle of the room, reacting to body heat and movement, hovering around the visitors like a strange creature. Stones revealed their weathering as a dynamic process of change. Large willow structures, carefully co-crafted by humans and computers, were interwoven with the inhabitable space. Korean ›durumagi‹, a silk overcoat connecting the digital and physical realm, vibrated on the visitors’ skin as they interacted with diverse materials. Walking through the room with VR headsets on, visitors could enter a glass elevator and travel straight down into the materials presented – into the CT scan of a stone or high up into the clouds to interact with air molecules.
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Subterranean Matters, by Baris Pekcagliyan, Warja Rybakova, Nayeli Vega, Paulina Greta, stretching senses school. Copyright: Matters of Activity
The »stretching senses school« is an education-as-research project between »Cutting« and »Object Space Agency«, which stemmed from the exhibition »Stretching Materialities«. Through this workshop-based contribution to the exhibition, we fostered collaborations between anthropology and immersive interaction art.
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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
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The undesigned consequences – the rise in acidic Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs). Copyright: Natalija Miodragović
We are our environment. To comprehend this inseparability, other than human experiences are to be imagined. Creating a new habitat of active architectures is a negotiation between conservation, regeneration and innovation. If we look at the inherited city, clothing, built and woven environment, atmosphere and techno-sphere as a multi-scale homeostatic process of conservation, other ecologies are to be included to complete the conservation. For ›matter as a condensation of response-ability‹ new perspectives of processes are needed for the innovation.
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Open Space Event, 9 November 2023. Copyright: Matters of Activity
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, making 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.
If you are interested in a visit, please contact us via moa.activarium [at] hu-berlin.de to visit!
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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.
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