DEVELOPING A BIO-DIGITAL CRAFT

bioMATTERS is a biodesign studio based in New York City and London. Our expertise lies in the development of bio-digitally crafted products, and architectural material systems. We 3D print and robotically biofabricate materials for the market of grown-design, bio-based and biodegradable materials. ⁠Our mission is to make products with new methods in the face of natural resources depletion, changing scales of manufacturing, processing, and resource movements that are resulting from the increasingly negative impacts of the environmental and ecological crisis.

We have developed pioneering interdisciplinary workflows that integrate biological systems in parallel with computational design modeling and biofabrication methods. Our products are made from upcycled waste materials and there is minimal waste involved in the biofabrication process.

We cultivate and manipulate living cells from soil and aquatic environments such as mycelium, lichens, bacteria, and algae strains. We have developed techniques and protocols that allow us to propagate these living cells and colonize them in substrates and scale them up into various customized biocomposite materials. Additionally we have developed a palette of living-based pigments to add colour to some of our biomaterials.

We are currently residents at Center Rog+Museum of Architecture Ljubljana Slovenia and we are ‘Makers with a Mission’ residents at Makerversity, Somerset House in London. bioMATTERS has been previously supported by NEW INC New Museum NY Incubator (2019-22) and Futureworks NYC Incubator (2018-19).

  • WASTE MATERIALS

  • FUNGI

  • ALGAE

  • BACTERIA

  • ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

TEAM

Nancy Diniz

Nancy is a registered architect and educator. Her practice and research lie in the intersection of biological systems and computational design. She is the recipient of numerous grants, fellowships, and residencies namely, NEW INC NEW Museum NY, 2016-2018 NYSCA/Storefront award, MacDowell, EYEBEAM, Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, and The Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal. She has co-curated and co-chaired exhibitions and symposia internationally, some include ‘Biocalibrated: Tools and Techniques of Biodesign Practices’ at Central Saints Martins UAL London 2023; 'Artificial Realities: Virtual as an Aesthetic Medium in Architectural Ideation' for the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2019, Lisbon and "Data & Matter" exhibition at the GAA Foundation 2018, Venice. Nancy has exhibited her work at Material Matters 2023, NYCxDesign 2023 and 2019, London Design Biennale 2021, Dutch Design Week 2023/2019, The Today Art Museum, China, Architecture Triennale Lisbon 2015 and 2013, London Design Festival 2019, Istanbul Design Biennale 2015, and Milan EXPO 2015 upon others. Nancy is the Course Leader of the Masters in Biodesign at Central Saint Martins UAL and she has previously held academic positions in the US, China, UK, Italy and Portugal. Nancy is co-editor of "Data, Matter, Design: Strategies in Computational Design" (Routledge 2020).

Frank Melendez

Frank is an architectural designer, educator, and researcher. He is a co-founder and partner at bioMATTERS, LLC based in New York City and London. Frank is a tenured Associate Professor at the Spitzer School of Architecture, City College of New York (CCNY), City University of New York (CUNY). His practice, teaching, and research engage topics pertaining to architectural representation, biomaterials, ecology, computational design, digital fabrication, physical computing, and robotics. Frank is the author of Drawing from the Model (Wiley, 2019) and co-editor of Data, Matter, Design (Routledge, 2020). His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at various venues including London Design Festival, Usagi Gallery New York, Calico Gallery New York, Lisbon Architecture Triennale, and Open Cell London. He has curated and organized symposia and exhibitions including rE-Ordering Architecture, New York, NY and DATA & MATTER, Venice, Italy. Frank has been awarded grants, residencies, and memberships including the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)/ Van Alen Institute, Nature Art & Habitat Residency (NAHR), MacDowell, and NEW INC. His professional practice experience includes working at Frank O. Gehry & Associates. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Arizona and a Master of Architecture degree from Yale University.