Biographies

María Mazzanti is an architect educator and researcher based in Amsterdam with a particular interest in critical spatial practices, feminist geography and publishing. She is an editor in Failed Architecture. María is a tutor in Studio For Immediate Spaces, the architecture Master course at the Sandberg Instituut. María teaches theory in the Bachelor’s program of Architecture at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. 

Anna Bierler is an independent graphic designer in Rotterdam, specializing in community-based publishing. Anna has taught in institutions such as ArTEZ and the Willem de Kooning Academie and led a multiplicity of workshops in different countries. 

María and Anna both have a collaborative practice rooted in process-based design, questioning anthropocentrism, and exploring posthuman thinking. They have taught together, developed experimental publications, and facilitated workshops on storytelling and reframing human-environment interactions in times of environmental collapse.

Workshop: #1 Linking Bodies of Water

Hussein Shikha and Sadrie Alves are collaborators working on the ongoing project ‘Tales of Symbologies’ . They have shared their research in various contexts and workshops such as ULTRADEPENDENT PUBLIC SCHOOL (Utrecht), Open Design Course (Ghent) and Extra City (Antwerp).

Hussein Shikha’s practice betwixt design, art, and research engages with complex symbologies that reflect his heritage and family history —he comes from generations of workers engaged in the traffic and logistics of carpet-making— through equally complex pixel drawing. His work is a reaction to dominant Modernist canons that have discredited the visual cultures he was raised in. His work entails experimental film, animation, textile and interactive installations. Hussein takes the manipulation and transformation of the southern Iraqi carpet (with all its philosophies) as a starting point to understand art and design from Eastern and non-Eastern perspectives, examining possible shifts towards more inclusive and less Eurocentric perceptions of visual arts. He was born and raised in Iraq and moved to Flanders where he is currently based.

Sadrie Alves is a Belgian-Brazilian artist living in the countryside of Flanders. The core of her artistic practice departs from drawing as a symbolic action and catalyst for tender, collective narratives. She is currently working on collaborative projects that share a focus on undermined visual languages, “unreliable” knowledges, and intersectional theory. Together with artist Hussein Shikha, she is developing Tales of Symbologies (2022–ongoing), a research project informed by the philosophies and semiotics of the carpet. With performer Desiree Cerocien, she is developing the musical performance Prazer, Barbara (2022–ongoing), which inquires about the contemporary associations of barbarity and femininity.

​Workshop: #2 Tales of Symbologies: Gardening Visual Literacies​

Nina Haarsaker is an architect currently working as associate professor at the Department of Architecture and Technology (IAT) at NTNU, developing and communicating creative pedagogical processes linked to spatial investigation and reflection through a wide range of relevant and artistic tools and "making is thinking architecture" methods.

Gro Rødne is an architect, associate professor, cofounder of TRANSark (www.ntnu.edu/transark) and program leader for the master program in Architecture at NTNU in Trondheim.

Hanna Landfald Hanssen is an architect currently working as urban planner in the municipality in Bodø, with high interest in the role of creative, open minded and critical thoughts and ideas in the city planning field, and the ability to do this cross disciplines. Formerly working as research assistant at NTNU, Trondheim.

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Workshop: #3 DELINEATE THE ALIENATED
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Julian Brües is an architect, teacher and editor in Vienna. He worked for offices such as Lederer Ragnasdottir and FurrerJud.
Since March 2020 he has been working as a research assistant at the department of Raum und Gestalt at TU Graz. In 2020, he received the Start Scholarship with which he founded ‘Diskursiv’, an association for architectural research. Where he co-directed the book “Models”.

Simon Oberhofer is an architectural photographer based in Austria. Educated at the Technical Universities in Graz and Istanbul he now works for architecture offices, foundations and private clients in Austria and abroad.
As a trained architect he seeks to capture the qualities of space, while keeping a poetic point of view. From 2015-2022 he teached at Institute for Contemporary Art at TU Graz, where he established the Laboratory for Visual Practice. Since 2023 he teaches at Gestaltungslehre/TU Vienna.

Workshop: #4 Blow Up

Anna Maragkoudaki (Athens *1984) is a multidisciplinary designer. She hold degrees in Architectural Engineering from the National Technical University in Athens and in Photography and Audiovisual Arts from the University of West Attica. In 2016 she received a Master of Advanced Studies in Architecture and Information from the CAAD Chair at ETH Zurich. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and has professional experience as a practicing architect, photographer, designer and educator. She is inspired by a wide range of themes within contemporary culture which she aspires to materialize in projects, virtual or physical, that oscillate between architecture, object design, virtual technics and installations. Her cardinal tools are intuition and play.

Workshop: #5 Specula Rasa

Carola Ebert is Professor of Interior Design, History and Theory of Architecture and Design at Berlin International University of Applied Science. Previously she ran her own practice for 8 years, taught at different universities, incl. implementing new ways of teaching and learning at Humboldt Universität Berlin.
Carola studied architecture in Berlin and London, architectural history at The Bartlett, UCL, and wrote a PhD on the West-German modernist bungalow 1952-69. In 2018 she organised the
international conference ‘Interior-Inferior-In Theory? Contemporary Positions in Interior Design Theory’. Drawing on her different experiences, Carola strongly believes in supporting students in identifying and pursuing their own areas of interest – whether by research or in the studio.

Katrin Brünjes is Professor of Interior Architecture and Design at Berlin International University of Applied Sciences. Previously, she taught architecture at TU Berlin and BTU Cottbus and participated in the international interdisciplinary research network Oikonet on the topic of living and learning. She organized international workshops at Universidad Francisco
de Vitoria Madrid and Politecnico di Milano. In addition to her academic work, Katrin runs her studio BrünjesTyrra Architekten in Berlin. She gained international experience in architecture and interiors at David Chipperfield Architects, London, and Kollhoff Architects, Berlin & Rotterdam. She studied architecture at ETSA Valladolid, Spain, and Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany

Workshop: #6 I¡dentify! What‘s your favourite problem?

MFA Consuelo Méndez is a US-American/Venezuelan artist with extensive experience in art teaching and creative research in plastic/visual/body arts. BFA, SFAI, CA (1974); MA, SFStateU, CA (1976): Printmaking. Professor at
Institute of Fine Arts Armando Reverón, Caracas, in Experimental Drawing (1991-2009), Performance and Body Art (2000-2009). She has ample experience in participative public art and muralism, being part of the collective Mujeres Muralistas (https://www.sfmoma.org/publication/mission-murals/)

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MSc.MFA Nayarí Castillo (Méndez`s daughter) is an installation artist, activist and researcher specialized in art in public space MFA in Public Art, Bauhaus Uni, Weimar,DE(2008). She has worked on numerous international art projects developed in the roles of artist, coordinator and/or curator. She is currently a research associate at the Institute of Spatial Design at Graz University of Technology (AT) actively engaging with collaborative art ​(www.simularr.at) and eco-art (http://forest-encounters.net/). She teaches different subjects in the area of spatial experiments at the TU Graz and Conceptual Art at the PH Steiermark.

This mother-daughter duo will amalgam their knowledge to produce a fantastic journey to ReNaturing.

Workshop: #7 ReNaturing — voicing resilience of city nature

Hélène Aarts is working as a visual artist and assistant professor in drawing at the faculty of The Built Environment at Eindhoven University of Technology. In drawing classes, workshops, and recent papers she focuses on idea generation, research by drawing, experiencing space, and the ambiguity between that experience and the representation. Besides her extensive teaching experience at design faculties (‘Industrial Design’ at both Delft University and at TUE), she gives international and professionally oriented workshops, all activities to promote drawing by hand for the architect and designer.

Workshop: #8 ‘You think too much, it’s only the cup and you!’

Colette Aliman is a creative researcher working within the fields of Design and Art in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. After graduating from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2019 with a Contextual Design MA, she launched the platform Sound Office to explore the bridge between the creative sector and noise policy. Sound Office produces workshops, lecture performances, and the online research archive www.sound-office.online. Colette's topics of interest and research include multi-species-culture(s) sonic intersections, raising awareness of person’s choice in sound design of our everyday objects, and speculative R&D in the future of the industrial revolution soundscapes.

Workshop: #9 Sonic Friction

After graduating from the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio and gaining professional experience at Jan Kinsbergen and Pascal Flammer offices, João dos Santos and Marija Urbaitė founded urbaite.studio in Zurich. Their research work and professional practice is characterized by a dynamic engagement with the inherent tensions and contradictions intrinsic to the diverse field of architecture discipline. Currently, they are focused on planning small-scale residential and office building projects in remote neighborhoods lacking distinct historical or cultural identities, with a goal of implementing adaptable constructions where space and structure are intricately intertwined. João holds the position of a research assistant at the Structural Design Chair under Prof. Dr. Mario Monotti at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio. Marija was a Research Associate under Prof. Jeanette Kuo at the Technical University of Munich. 

​Workshop: #10 PHYSICAL DIGITAL​

Federico Taverna is an Italian architect based in Belgium. His interest lies on a re-evaluation of everyday objects and their cultural value, to inscribe what already exist in a new constellation of meanings. Every project is the result of a collaborative and multidisciplinary process, believing that a collective body of knowledge can be shared to produce new cultural artefacts. After studying at the University of Udine in Italy and at KTH in Stockholm, he graduated in 2020 from KU Leuven campus Brussels. Besides working as architect in Brussels, he was guest tutor at the Antwerp IDW 2022, and his work and articles are featured in various publications. He won the competition for the Seoul 100 years masterplan which is exhibited at the 4th Seoul Biennale ofarchitecture and urbanism.

Workshop: #11 THE ALIEN AND THE CAVEMAN. A MUSEUM FOR BOTH

Oliver Froome-Lewis engages the everyday in Endurance Walking, Mapping and Map-Making in London, he has created 'propositional' maps and events for Olympic Legacy in London's East End, The London Design Museum, and The London Festival of Architecture. His research addresses mapping tactics that draw parallels between design research, experimental fiction and current practices in Fine Art. https://oliverfroome-lewis.com

Penélope Plaza is an urban artivist, architect and researcher. She is co-founder of CollectiVoX, a small not-for-profit design practice that co-creates interventions in public space as catalyst for positive social change. Penelope's research intersects petrocultures, public art, interventions in public space and creative practice.https://penelope-plaza.carbonmade.com/

Workshop: #12 VISCERALITY

Anna Persson is a designer and Director of the International Master’s Programme at Lund University School of Industrial Design in Lund, Sweden. In educating the next generation of designers, Anna encourages the exploration of the potential of design processes to tackle complex issues in contexts beyond the limitations of an industry fixated on short-term profitability.

Workshop: #13 Designing for a life worth living? An exploration of existential sustainability

June Kyong Trondsen is a Ph.D. candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Department of Design. Her research focuses on critical/ discursive/ speculative design, understanding the role of shame in design and its entanglement with norms, narratives, and social values.

Workshop: #14 Design for deviance

Vedrana Ikalovic is an urbanist and architect currently engaged as an associate professor at Junia – HEI Graduate School of Engineering, Lille, France. Within the Smart and Resilient Cities Master program, she is actively organising courses and workshops that bring together subjective experiences of urban and architectural space and enginnering. She holds Master degrees in Architecture (Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering Banjaluka, Bosnia-Herzegovina) and Urban planning (Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan), and a doctoral degree in engineering from Keio University, Tokyo, Japan. She has recently organised workshops in an international context, where she further develops her interdisciplinary approach integrating social, spatial and etnographic methods.

Workshop: #15 Urban acupuncture: from „repellent spaces“ to „healing places“

Hande Ayanoğlu holds a Ph.D. degree in Design and Innovation. She is currently the executive director of UNICOM Research Unit at IADE, Universidade Europeia. She coordinated Master in Product and Space Design at IADE, Universidade Europeia for 3 years. She has been working as an Assistant Professor at IADE, UE since 2014 and she's been giving lectures in undergraduate design degree (Industrial Design, Interaction Design, and Ergonomics) and graduate design degree (Master in Interaction Design, Master in Product and Space Design, PhD in Design). Besides teaching, she has been involved in design research and actively collaborating with researchers in several other disciplines, namely computer science, psychology, architecture, ergonomics, and design. She interoperates in research projects in the area of Product Design, Interaction Design, Smart Products/Environments, Emotional Design, and Human-Robot Interaction.

Filipa Alves is a Portuguese biophysicist and researcher at the interface between Science and Design. She holds a degree in Biology and a PhD in Physics. She currently coordinates the Bio-Inspired Design Lab at UNIDCOM/IADE in Lisbon, where she works on nature-inspired algorithms for generative design and on design approaches to improve scientific literacy.

Workshop: #16 Re-connect: a nature-inspired speculative design workshop