Central Saint Martins adds MA Biodesign course

Central Saint Martins, UAL is launching the first Masters in Biodesign starting in September, which will explore bio-informed design strategies as a driver for sustainable innovation.

The ethos of the two-year course is to collaborate with living systems to revisit the approach to design and manufacturing, be it in the context of architecture, product design, jewellery, fashion or textiles, and will be a creative-led appropriation of biological dynamic properties applied to contemporary products and services.

Students will explore biomimicry principles, synthetic biology protocols, biocomputation and biofabrication methods to develop new design propositions that can redefine energy, water, air, waste and materials and how we design and make in the future.

By hybridising design methods with biology protocols, students will learn to develop a new and original practice fundamentally inscribed with sustainability, and they will also benefit from access to the ‘Grow Lab’, a brand new bio laboratory facility at Central Saint Martins supported by a team of designers as well as a biologist and bio lab technician.

Biodesign has emerged out of a decade of pioneering research and is regarded as a major driver for sustainable innovation, and the course will have strategic partners including the Medical Research Council, the EDF Foundation (www.thisisalive.com) and Maison/0 (the CSM LVMH Sustainable Innovation programme).

The course leader will be Nancy Diniz, a registered architect, educator and co-founder of BioMatters based in New York City. Her research and practice operates in-between the human body and architectural scale and engages biotechnology, digital fabrication, interactive design and data visualisation.

Professor Jeremy Till, head of Central Saint Martins, pro vice-chancellor research, University of the Arts London, said in a statement: “I am delighted that Central Saint Martins is leading the way by setting up this groundbreaking MA in Biodesign. This builds on the College’s long-standing reputation for using design to intervene in other disciplines and producing innovative hybrid outcomes.

“The Central Saint Martins MA Biodesign will develop a rigorous practice-led research approach, equipping students with a range of skills and processes. I am confident that the graduates from the course will emerge as pioneers in this developing field.”