Skip to main content

Thora Arnardottir

Profession
Associate Lecturer, MA Biodesign
College
Central Saint Martins
Person Type
Teacher
Thora Arnardottir

Biography

I am an experimental designer and researcher with a background in architecture. I am particularly interested in integrating living processes in the built environment and harnessing collaborative approaches to working with living "unruly matters," where I specialise in biofabrication that combines design methods, biological systems, and innovative fabrication techniques. During my PhD studies at the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment at Newcastle University, I developed expertise in designing novel fabrication methods that utilise bacterial biomineralisation to form calcified biocomposite materials, focusing on the possibility of integrating biotic agency in the expression and formation of the material.

Always interested in how nature and design come together, I co-founded the collective, BioBabes, to disseminate and explore how biological interactions affect our design experiences. Therefore, a big part of this collective's mission involves reflecting on how we represent nature's agency in our design. Here, we explore fabrication processes through wearable design, material expression, and the representation of novel biotechnologies to the public. I recently established Unruly Matters Ltd, a start-up focused on design-led biomaterial innovation and biomineralised product development.

I graduated with a BA from Arts University Bournemouth (AUB), and a master's from the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) in Barcelona. Currently, I work as a researcher at the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment at Newcastle University, where I work at the intersection of design, biology, and fabrication through the EPSRC Manufacturing the Future funded project Living Manufacture.

Links

Central Saint Martins

Contact

Telephone

+44 (0)20 7514 7444

Address

1 Granary Square
King's Cross
London
N1C 4AA