Material Aesthetics Lab

Material Aesthetics Lab

“We envision a world in which the materials and artefacts we live and interact with can intelligently adapt their shape and materiality akin to being alive”

At the Material Aesthetics Lab, researchers design with advanced materials and explore their emerging aesthetics. The lab works at the intersection of interaction design, materials science, robotics, and biology. Through the development of prototypes, it explores tools and methods to design with these advanced materials. Efficiency and functionality perspectives shift towards aesthetic and environmentally conscious approaches. Future applications of materials that can provide solutions to societal challenges are explored in the lab. Consider materials that compute, feel, and move, inspiring new ways of tangible and embodied interaction. The designers of the future will be introduced to different ways of making. Their role will change with the development of these new materials.

Experimental Environment

The Material Aesthetics Lab has an open studio setup. Researchers, students, engineers, and artists are invited to inspire and contribute. Through the exchange between disciplines (including Biomedical, Electrical, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, and Physics), the lab creates an experimental environment where new, creative concepts are born. Therefore, the lab collaborates with a wide range of external stakeholders including design studios, industrial partners, research institutes, hospitals, restaurants, and other schools and universities.

Facilities and Research Topics

The Material Aesthetics Lab offers facilities to design with and for bio-based and living materials, soft robotics, haptic interactions, and edible materials. Therefore, it offers a wide range of additive fabrication technologies, processing, and measuring equipment. Currently, the researchers in the lab work on five research topics, namely: Sustainable Soft Robotics, More-than-Human Temporalities, Materiality of Care, Patient Simulators, Inclusive Gastronomy, and Haptic Experience Design.

Amy Winters, Bahar Barati, Anke van Oosterhout, and Miguel Bruns. 2023. The Material Aesthetics Lab: Creating Interactive Experiences with Matter. interactions 30, 5 (September - October 2023), 12–15. doi.org/10.1145/3611152