Sanne Visser

Biography

Sanne Visser is a designer, researcher and educator working in material innovation, public engagement and systemic design research, through materials design, research and collaborative practice. She is best known for her expansive work on human hair as a circular and regenerative material resource. She runs Studio Sanne Visser, the design research practice she founded in 2016, and since 2024 HairCycle, a community-based entity that advances human hair into new materials through an ecosystem of stakeholders.

She teaches across several courses at UAL as a Lecturer and Research Fellow, with specialist knowledge in regenerative design, systemic design and participatory design practice.

Visser recently submitted her PhD at UAL, titled 'Human Hair as a Circular and Regenerative Material Resource: A Systemic Approach to Innovation Through Transdisciplinary and Collaborative Design Practice'. The research was funded by TECHNE (AHRC, UKRI) and supervised by Dr Rosie Hornbuckle, Professor Rebecca Earley and Professor Kate Goldsworthy.

Her work has been shown internationally and acquired by museums. She has been featured in UKRI's '101 Jobs That Change the World' campaign and recognised through the UAL Knowledge Exchange Award and a Dezeen Emerging Designer of the Year nomination, amongst others.