MATERIALECOLOGY: Neri Oxman: MIT takes Manhattan

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

MIT takes Manhattan

Today at the Tech: MIT takes Manhattan by Sarah H. Wright gives an overview of the latest involvement of MIT based designers and researchers at the MoMA. I am honored to share the mention with my good friends and colleagues: Erik and Martin Demaine (Eric - the Esther and Harold Edgerton Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Martin - a CSAIL visiting scientist) - exploring Computational Origami, Larry Sass (Assistant Professor of architecture at the Computation Group) - going digital with the 'shotgun' house typical of New Orleans, Carlo Ratti (SENSEable Cities Group, Director) - and his NY Talk Exchange project, and last but not least Professor Hugh Herr (MIT Media Lab) -and his wondrous Power Ankle-Foot Prosthesis. Natural Artifice is included amongst the projects (specifically Monocoque) followed by witty chronicles of "weird stretched animal skins and slinky vases". How becoming.

MIT News, March 18th, 2008

materialecology

materialecology was formed in 2006 by Neri Oxman as an interdisciplinary research initiative that undertakes design research in the intersection between architecture, engineering, computation, and ecology. As such, this initiative is concerned with material organization and performance across all scales of design thought and practice. As such, it seeks to promote and define a design research agenda which is ecological in nature, in ideology and in material practice; it aims at embracing the evolving elements of change in both (and indeed related) social constructs and environmental descriptions of the ever changing built environment. materialecology undertakes research in advanced digital applications for architectural practice and pursuits their contribution to a design paradigm promoting generative design processes.