TOPICS OF INTEREST
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Bio-Design | Nature-based solutions | Ecological monitoring | Biodiversity | Ecosystems | Bio-inspired innovation | Decarbonization | Healthy cities | Living architecture
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Bio-Fabricate | Living prototypes | Digital fabrication | Synthetic biology | Bio-labs | Industrialization | Biological construction
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Bio-Materials | Biowaste | Circularity | Natural materials | Embodied carbon | Regeneration | Resource flows
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Bio-Economy | Governance | Policies | Ethics | Knowledge transfer | Bio-regions | Entrepreneurship | Value chain
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Theories of Design with Life | Design with more-than-human | Metabolism | Tools & methodologies | Speculative design
The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and Cocoon are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for the international symposium, Bio-design for Living Futures. This global platform invites researchers, practitioners, and innovators to explore the field of Biodesign and its role in shaping sustainable futures for our planet.
In a world facing the urgent challenges of environmental degradation, resource depletion, and climate change, Biodesign offers a unique opportunity to reimagine the way we design, produce, and interact with our environment, thinking beyond human-centered design and engaging with more-than-human perspectives, acknowledging the interconnectedness of all living things.
Biodesign challenges the extractive, linear practices of traditional resource flows by advocating for closed-loop systems and circular economies. Through the development of bio-materials, living prototypes, and bio-fabrication techniques, this approach reimagines how buildings, products, and infrastructure are made—shifting the focus from consumption and waste to renewal and regeneration.
Integrating traditionally distant fields like biotechnology, design, synthetic biology, materials science, and architecture, Biodesign offers innovative solutions and methodologies that span diverse scales and applications.
Whether focusing on the local dimension through the use of carbon-capturing living materials and bio-inspired systems for ecological restoration, or addressing entire value chains through the development of renewed governance structures and business models, Biodesign promotes a regenerative approach that strengthens our environment’s life-supporting systems and seeks to re-establish a functioning planetary metabolism.
We call for visionary ideas that reimagine how we design, build, and inhabit our world. The symposium will serve as a platform for exploring and co-envisioning regenerative, life-centered futures that boldly challenge and transform current models of growth, production, and consumption.
PROGRAM
DAY 1
15th OCTOBER
09:30 — Registration
10:00 - Welcome
Lluis Torres, Director of Strategic Projects of BIT Habitat
Americo Mateus, Project Coordinator of CoCoon
Areti Markopoulou, Academic Director of IAAC
10:55 — Digital Living Futures
Roberta Salierno
Martin Tamke
Edouard Cabay
Roundtable moderated by: Areti Markopoulou
12:10 — Coffee Break
12:20 — Material Living Futures
Richard Beckett
Andreas Theodoridis
Thora Arnardottir
Roundtable moderated by: Américo Mateus
13:35 — Lunch Break
15:00 — Design with Life
Nancy Diniz
Chiara Farinea
Rachel Armstrong
Roundtable moderated by: Fiona Demeur
Bio-Design For Living Futures is an international Symposium focused on Bio-Design organized within the framework of CoCoon, aligned with Barcelona Design Week 2025.
15th of October - Keynote Speakers
BIT Habitat, Carrer de Pere IV, 362
16th of October - Conference Papers
IAAC, Carrer de Pujades, 102
DAY 2
16th OCTOBER
09:00 — Welcome
09:20 — Biodesign Session
10:30 — Bio-economy Session
11:30 — Coffee Break
11:45 — Bio-fabricate and Bio-materials Session
12:55 — Lunch Break
13:40 — Theories of Design with Life Session
SPEAKERS
Roberta Salierno is an architect and PhD candidate in Management Engineering and Technology of Architecture at Politecnico di Milano. Her research investigates strategies for scaling up the use of bio-based materials in architecture, moving from experimental prototypes to mainstream construction. She holds a master’s degree in architecture, with a thesis centred on additive manufacturing, digital fabrication, and bio-based materials for room acoustics.
In the past two years, she has gained international experience both in academia and practice through a visiting research period at Aarhus University in Denmark and a collaboration period with the international firm Henning Larsen. Alongside her research, she has taught for several years as a teaching assistant in the bachelor's course Building Technology Studio and as a lecturer in two editions of the I and II level master’s program "Material Balance Design", with a module on computational design.
Martin Tamke is Associate Professor at the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) in Copenhagen. He is pursuing a design led research in the interface and implications of computational design and its materialization.
He joined the newly founded research centre CITA in 2006 and shaped its design based research practice. Projects on new design and fabrication for wood and fibre based materials led to a series of research projects and digitally fabricated demonstrators that explore an architectural practice engaged with bespoke materials and behaviour.
Martin initiated and conducted research projects in the emerging field of digital production in building industry and architectural computation. The research connects academic and industrial partners from architecture and engineering, computer and material science and the crafts. Currently he is involved in the Danish funded 4 year Complex Modelling and Material Imagination research project and the European InnoChain Innovative Training network.
Aldo Sollazzo is an Italian entrepreneur and innovator, expert in robotics, computer vision, and computational design. He is the CEO of Noumena since 2011, a data-driven company implementing computer vision and machine learning to study and analyze spatial dynamics.
As part of the Noumena Group, he is also the CEO of PURE.TECH, a material-driven company operating promoting sustainability at the industrial scale, and of LAMÁQUINA, a large-scale 3D printing factory, shaping new architectural solutions integrating advanced manufacturing and computation.
At the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalunya in Barcelona, he is the Director of the Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction.
In 2019 Aldo received, from the Italian President of the Republic, the title of Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy for the promotion of national prestige abroad as a recognition of his scientific and technological activities.
Aldo has made many appearances as a guest speaker at Conferences and University Seminars, amongst them European Conference on Computer Vision, Barcelona Urban Tech, Future City Summit, The Venice Biennale and TEDx Barcelona.
Richard Beckett is an Associate Professor in Architecture at the Bartlett, UCL where he is Director of RC7 on the BPro Architectural Design master’s programme and leads Studio 3 on MA/MLA Landscape Architecture. His research is focused on design operating at the intersection of computation, biofabrication, and microbial ecologies in buildings and cities.
His research on Probiotic Design won the RIBA Presidents Research Award in 2021. He has built numerous projects and has been exhibited internationally including Archilab – Naturalising Architecture, The Pompidou Centre and Nature – Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. He is currently PI on a 3 year EPSRC funded research project; ‘Probiotic interventions to reduce the emergence and persistence of pathogens in built environments’.
Rachel Armstrong is ZAP Professor of Design-Driven Construction at KU Leuven, leading the Regenerative Architecture Arts and Design (RAAD) group. Her research explores regenerative architecture, developing biohybrid materials (e.g., mycelium composites, bioreceptive ceramics, custom bioreactors) that enable self-repair and ecological integration.
As coordinator of the EIC Pathfinder "Microbial Hydroponics", she explores microbial symbiosis for circular, bioregenerative urban agriculture. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges synthetic biology, biochemistry, origins of life sciences, and digital fabrication to create living architectural systems. Author of Soft Living Architecture (2018) and Experimental Architecture (2019), she redefines buildings as metabolically active entities.
A Senior TED Fellow and EIC Ambassador, Armstrong’s work advances architecture’s role in ecological regeneration.
Nancy Diniz is an architect, author and educator on the topics of biodesign, biomaterials and computational design. She is Co-founder and CEO of bioMATTERS and Course Leader of MA Biodesign at Central Saint Martins UAL. She is the recipient of numerous grants and residencies namely British Council, NYSCA, Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Somerset House, NEW INC NY, Future Works NYC, MacDowell Colony, and EYEBEAM.
Her work has been exhibited at Museum of Architecture and Design MAO/Center Rog, London Design Festival, Lisbon Architecture Triennale and Venice Architecture Biennale.
Nancy is co-editor of the book ‘Data, Matter, Design: Strategies in Computational Design’ Routledge 2020 and ‘Bio-Calibrated: Tools and Techniques of Biodesign Practices’ Research Directions: Biotechnology Design by Cambridge University Press Assessment 2023.
Dr. Andreas Theodoridis is an architect, researcher, and Assistant Professor at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). His work operates at the intersection of architecture,
environmental technology, and public health, focusing on biointegrated, phytoremediative
ceramic systems for building envelopes that mitigate urban air pollution and support urban
biodiversity, with an emphasis on environmental equity.
As principal of United Atmospheres, he
connects materials research with field monitoring, design practice, and community
engagement. His projects and teaching bridge design, construction, and environmental
systems, and have been presented internationally at venues including the Venice ArchitecturecBiennale, the Oslo Architecture Triennale, the Istanbul Design Biennial, and PrincetoncUniversity, among others. His writing and research appear in outlets such as the ASHRAE Journal, OFFRAMP, and Log. Theodoridis holds a PhD from CASE/RPI and an MSc in Sustainable Environmental Systems from Pratt Institute.
Thora H Arnardottir is a postdoctoral researcher and interdisciplinary designer with a background in architecture. Her work explores the integration of living systems into design, focusing on engineered biological processes and new material approaches. Her PhD, Bacterial Sculpting (Newcastle University), investigated biomineralization (MICP) as a design method, collaborating with bacteria and microalgae to develop responsive biofabrication strategies. Thora’s research challenges conventional architecture by positioning living materials as active participants in design, rather than passive elements. She holds a Master’s in Advanced Architecture from IAAC, Spain, and a BA from Arts University Bournemouth.
She is currently a Senior Researcher at Northumbria University’s Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, co-leading the EPSRC-funded Living Manufacture and the EU-funded Bioarc projects, both centred on sustainable, bio-based construction materials. She has taught at Central Saint Martins and worked on projects like Thinking Soils. Thora is also the founder of Unruly Matters Ltd and co-founder of the Biobabes collective.
Chiara Farinea is an Italian architect and urban planner whose work focuses on environmental planning and sustainable urban development. She holds a PhD in Urban Planning from IUAV (Venice), a Master in Advanced Architecture from IAAC (Barcelona), and an Architecture degree from Politecnico di Milano, with a year at ETSAB (Barcelona) through the Erasmus Programme.
Currently, Chiara is Head of European Projects at IAAC’s Advanced Architecture Group, where she coordinates and contributes scientifically to several EU-funded projects in education, research, and implementation. She also teaches within IAAC’s academic programs.
Previously, she was a Project Manager at D’Appolonia, leading international cooperation and smart city initiatives. She has also worked with Open Building Research (Genoa) and KSP Engel und Zimmermann (Berlin).
Chiara taught Urban Planning at the University of Genoa (2015–2016) and is a founding partner of Gr.IN Lab, an art collective that has exhibited at the Venice Arsenale and the Italia-China Art Biennale.
