Annual theme "Power of Material/Politics of Materiality" 

Interdisciplinary Lecture Series (2012/13)

22.01.2013

The Promise of Smart Materials
with Thomas Schröpfer and Nicola Stattmann

Thomas Schröpfer is Professor and Associate Head of Pillar of Architecture and Sustainable Design at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) that was founded in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). As a practicing architect he was also awarded a PhD from Harvard University in 2004 and conducts research on a.o. the role of material innovation in the process of architectural design and on sustainable architectonical urban development. His publications include Material Design: Materialität in der Architektur (Birkhäuser 2011) and Ecological Urban Architecture: Qualitative Approaches to Sustainability (Birkhäuser 2012). Architecture as a material practice is reflected in his own scientific research as well as in the projects of Schröpfer + Hee, a Cambridge, Massachusetts and Singapore-based architectural office of which he is a co-founder.

Nicola Stattmann has been working with her own design studio in Frankfurt am Main since 2002. The main focus of her work as a designer and materials-expert lies on the application of new materials and technologies in the realm of product design. Among her customers are Adidas, Fissler, Samsung and Volkswagen. In 2011 she and her brother founded the company Stattmann Neue Möbel, which is based in the Wesphalian Ascheberg, producing a selected program of furniture produced from sustainable materials. Stattmann holds a diploma in product design and since 2004 has been a guest professor a.o. at the Bauhaus University Weimar, the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach and the Kunsthochschule Kassel. In publications like Ultra Light – Super Strong (Birkhäuser 2003) and Unfolded (with Petra Schmidt, Birkhäuser 2009) she discusses the potentialities of new materials in product design and with the material paper respectively.