PEOPLE

Principal of Studio Samira Boon, a textile architecture studio based in Amsterdam and Tokyo with a strong focus on creating flexible and dynamic environments. As an expert on the material properties of textiles, Studio Samira Boon advises and collaborates with architects to formulate site-specific solutions.The studio was founded in Japan and combines the adaptive and sensory qualities of materials with research into state-of-the-art computerized production techniques. Recent works include the 3D woven SUPERFOLDS and ARCHI FOLDS: two innovative series of textile structures, which bring together technique, science and art. For ARCHI FOLDS she collaborated with Tokyo University and the Dutch TextielLab to combine traditional origami techniques with computerized textile folding possibilities.

Anna Sitnikova is a designer, speaker & curator based in Amsterdam.
Project Leader at Studio Samira Boon, Amsterdam;
Tutor at the Interior Architecture & Furniture Design Department (IAFD) at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague;
Curator, manager and the deputy-chair of the Moon Gallery Foundation;
Designer & researcher at Studio Anna Sitnikova, Amsterdam;
Elected expert at Technical Committee on Cultural Utilisation of Space (ITACCUS) of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF);
Elected Expert of the Space Habitats Committee of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

Raoul Frese, born Amsterdam 1969, studied physics at the University of Amsterdam and received his PhD at the VU University Amsterdam. After a postdoc at the Twente University (nanobiophysics), he received a young investigator grant from the dutch science foundation (NWO-veni) to carry out his own research at the biophysics group at Leiden University. Frese became a research associate in the lab of Bob Niederman at Rutgers University (NJ, USA). After receiving an experienced investigator grant from NWO (Vidi) he and family returned to Amsterdam. At the VU University he has currently established his workgroup biohybrid solar cells where he and his team investigate the possibilities to interconnect photosynthetic materials to (semi-)conducting substrates for biosensors and solar energy harvesting. Next to this, Frese actively investigates a new transdisciplinary research in his Hybrid Forms Lab in collaboration with artists and designers.

Sandrine d’Haene is a researcher specialized in photosynthesis. She recently received her PhD degree on her thesis ‘Regulation of light energy in photosynthetic bacteria’. Combining microbiology, molecular biology, biophysics and biochemistry, she contributes to the art-science laboratory of Raoul Frese, Hybrid Forms Lab, which is part of the Faculty of Science, Physics and Astronomy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The Hybrid Forms Lab is a place where scientists work with artists since 2017. Sandrine has been supporting several art-science projects including photosynthesis integrated in symbiotic machines (Raoul Frese & Ivan Henriques), organic materials from symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (Raoul Frese, Samira Boon and Iza Awad), airborne microbiome (Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand) and cyanobacteria use for bioalgorithmic Politcs (Raoul Frese & Michael Sedbon).

Iza Awad, chemistry research student at VU Amsterdam, on cross pollination between scientific and design experiments at the lab.

Margherita is a designer and concept developer and works at Waag and its TextileLab Amsterdam on several European and national projects in which she translates concepts into tangible works through material research.
She is trained as both an industrial designer and an artist and has a strong interest in tactility/tactile perception at the intersection of art and healthcare, supported by material research with a focus on the creation of patterns and textures. She is intrigued by how objects and materials stand in relation to our bodies and senses, and how these relations create a secondary effect on human behavior.
Margherita also works on a broad range of other independent projects through her own studio where she fulfills the role of designer, curator and teacher.