The research team at weißensee academy of art berlin, together with its project partners, successfully completed the development of an innovative sports belt system for postnatal muscle regeneration.
The system combines smart textile design with sustainable materials and integrates electromagnetic muscle activation (EMA) technology.
It sets a foundation for future advancements in smart, circular medical textiles.
The immersive opening event of the Disruptive Materials Institute e.V. is featuring a 2-day exhibition, presenting designers and practitioners who are pushing the boundaries of Textiles, Tools and Biomaterials. You’ll see projects that challenge conventional approaches – ranging from mushroom-based textile dyes to cutting-edge digital manufacturing processes and systematic takes on material culture and knowledge-transfer.
Come by on April 4th and 5th, 2025, at Galerie KuLe, Auguststraße 10, 10117 Berlin!
The materials developed by LignoLight have been added to the MaterialDistrict archive. From March 12 to 14, 2025, they will be showcased as part of an exhibition focused on innovative and sustainable materials.
MaterialDistrict Utrecht is a globally leading platform for innovative materials. As an international network for cutting-edge material solutions, MaterialDistrict drives innovation by connecting material demands with suitable solutions.
As part of the research project PI, patient tests were carried out in January 2025 in the maternity clinic of St. Joseph Hospital, Berlin, together with our project partner Born GmbH.
The project instigates the development of a sports belt based on modulated medium frequencies for mobile applications for postnatal muscle building of the deep abdominal and pelvic floor muscles.
The patients tested the sports belt with regard to fit, handling, comfort, as well as the perception and effect of the modulated medium-frequencies (EMA).
As part of the LignoLight research project, we had an extremely productive project meeting in the impressive exhibition rooms of our project partner, System 180, in Berlin.
An important part of the meeting was the transfer workshop we organized, in which we evaluated the developed materials from different perspectives and worked out the next steps for optimization, scaling, and possible material combinations.
It was particularly exciting to see how differently the materials were perceived, and how these different perspectives led to productive and innovative discussions that included the entire value chain – from the raw material to the possible end product.
From 21.11.2024 to 24.08.2025, materials from the LignoLight research project will be on display in the special exhibition “ZUKÜNFTE – Material und Design von morgen” at the Grassi Museum in Leipzig.
150 years after the museum was founded, the Grassi Museum is focusing on the future role of design in society. In three chapters, the exhibition highlights topics from the near and distant future.
LignoLight is represented in the “Material Lab” section.
The leather alternative developed as part of the LignoLight research project is now part of the „Schätze der Zukunft“ at Berliner Futurium – Haus der Zukünfte.
The sustainable innovation based on lignin stands alongside many other fascinating materials and technologies that show alternative paths for a sustainable future.
LigNo Leather is developed and produced by LignoPure.
In a three-day workshop, students of khb’s Greenlab 13.0 have been pushing the boundaries of innovation with DIY biomaterials. Led by researchers Joana Schmitz, Esther Kaya Stögerer, and Jannis Kempkens, students brought their ideas to life, developing and testing new material recipes.
Using khb’s new clay 3D printers, the initial results were promising, and we can’t wait to see how the students will build on this knowledge throughout the semester.
Stay tuned for more exciting updates from this year’s Greenlab 13.0!
As part of a documentary trip on the latest developments in Circular Design by the Senegalese designer Adama Paris in cooperation with Goethe Institute, we had the opportunity to present our research work within the framework of Lignolight to her and two finalists of a TV casting show. We were very happy about the visit and the inspiring exchange about the future of the fashion industry and are looking forward to the next meeting – in Berlin or in Senegal!
The interdisciplinary research project LignoLight develops materials and products based on lignin, a by-product of the global paper and cellulose industry. In contrast to the current thermal utilisation of the by-product, LignoLight utilises lignin in the production of materials for the furniture and fashion industry. Through the high-quality material use in the production of modular furniture components as well as shoe components, the carbon contained in the lignin can thus be bound in the long term and CO2 emissions can be prevented. LignoLight is funded by the Technologietransfer-Programm Leichtbau (Technology Transfer Programme Lightweight Construction) of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) and develops lignin-based material innovations to drive the paradigm shift away from petroleum-based and towards bio-based materials and products.
In the research Thema PI, a system for postnatal pelvic floor stimulation is being developed. According to medical studies, 25% of all mothers experience pelvic floor problems, while 40% of first-time mothers and 70% of multiple-time mothers struggle with diastasis. The project, which is funded by the Central Innovation Program for SMEs (ZIM), aims to develop a low-frequency electrostimulation system that is more effective in depth and volume for strengthening pelvic floor muscles. In addition, the system should be mobile and more comfortable to wear compared to conventional methods. The user-centered design approach will be followed, and young mothers as well as doctors will be involved in the development of the product.
The TheraTex research project closing symposium took place on November 11, 2022, at the Kunsthalle of the kunsthochschule weißensee berlin. The interdisciplinary consortium conducted research on a smart e-textile system to support people with hemiparesis. In several presentations, the researchers shared their findings on sensor development, textile integration, design of textile components and modules, feedback variations, and software of the system. Live demonstrations of the garments and components showcasing cutting-edge technologies inspired the participants. Finally, an insightful panel discussion on e-textiles in general and their application in the medical sector concluded the symposium.
Efficient sun shading solutions are important to protect building interiors from overheating and to reduce energy required to cool down buildings. The research project ADAPTEX KLIMA+ develops adaptive textile solar shading that open and close through the integration of Shape Memory Alloy – without the need for electricity. In August 2022 the ADAPTEX system was successfully installed as a test demonstrator at the German University of Technology in Muscat, Oman. With its particularly high temperatures, Muscat offers an ideal climate for studying the system’s behavior under extreme conditions. The solar shading system was installed on the facade of the university’s ECOHAUS, a prototype building for ecological building technology, and included a decentralized sensor network that monitors how the system behaves longterm.
How can we rethink current shading strategies within architecture? The research project ADAPTEX KLIMA+ looks at how smart materials can be integrated in textile in order to achieve a responsive shading system that relies solely on the ambient temperature to open and close. In the fall of 2021, the two concepts ADAPTEX Wave and ADAPTEX Mesh, were successfully realised as full-scale autarkic systems for the facade cavity.
The research project TheraTex presented an interactive object to visitors of the Bauhaus festival this year, providing insights into their research. The developed garment animated viewers to perform a correct and continuous therapeutic movement on the exhibition piece through auditory feedback in the form of a musical piece. It raised awareness for the medical condition hemiparesis and demonstrated what a more motivating and subconscious therapy could look like.
As part of XCAMP ’22 – an online event for thought leaders of the digital future – DXM hosted three panels with different research topics in the field of smart materials. An insight into the main topics “digital health“, “the future of crafts, design and making” as well as “kinetic responsive surfaces for architecture” was given and subsequently discussed with experts and sparring partners of the economy and other research fields. The aim was to initiate transdisciplinary research networks from science and industry that focus on the interfaces of design, materials research, social and societal issues to build up future fields of application.
What new opportunities could arise from the synergy between textile and electronics research, design and business? How might we reshape the textile research and industry landscape in a more dynamic and sustainable way? And to what extent could open innovation be both a successful and practically applicable model, even beyond the field of textiles?
In this one-day event of presentations, case studies, and interactive sessions, we will examine the challenges and achievements that have emerged along the journey of the Textile Prototyping Lab.
The DXM research project ADAPTEX is one of six projects that have been shortlisted for the internationally renowned Zumtobel Group Award “Special Prize for Innovation”, with its adaptive, textile sun protection solutions with intelligent memory materials for architectural facades.
The R&D project ADAPTEX won the poster award at the Aachen-Dresden-Denkendorf Textile Conference 2021. The poster was presented by Maxie Schneider.
The research project TheraTex presents the current research results of the user-centered design process and prototype development at this year’s Aachen-Dresden-Denkendorf International Textile Conference 2021. Within the panel Sensory and Actuatory Medical Devices, different fashion design concepts and different methods of textile integration will be shown. Furthermore, the current state of electronics development and feedback mechanisms will be presented.
HYDROWEAVE by Stefanie Eichler & Juni Neyenhuys was awarded a recognition in the field of “Study” at the Raumprobe Material Award 2020. The project, which centers on a research-based design approach, was created in 2019 at weißensee kunsthochschule berlin as part of the MoA Design Studio Scaling Nature (1): Wrinkles under the direction of Prof. Christiane Sauer.
Since 2005, Raumprobe has been a constantly growing online material database and physical material exhibition in Stuttgart. Raumprobe has been awarding the prestigious Material Prize annually since 2013, recognizing special materials. The prize is awarded in 8 categories, including design, innovation, ecology, study and process. The jury consists of an interdisciplinary panel of experts and is reconstituted each year.
The winning entry in the study category, HYDROWEAVE is a research-based design project and introduces an innovative system—cellulose-based woven modules that respond to moisture. The result is an adaptive membrane that responds to the environment in a special way, with no technical actuators or sensors at all. When water vapor develops, the modules curve or stretch their woven structure accordingly, creating surfaces that open or close adaptively, for example to ventilate or separate areas. The modules are also made entirely from biodegradable and renewable raw materials. The design project in the Department of Textile and Surface Design took place as part of the research Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity. Image Space Material”, with the participation of scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces Golm, Department of Biomaterials: Ebba Fransén Waldhör, Maxie Schneider, Khashayar Razghandi, Lorenzo Guiducci, Peter Fratzl und Cécile Bidan.
At this year’s virtual Dutch Design Week, exciting projects from the fields of textile and surface design and product design, created at the weissensee kunsthochschule berlin, will be presented. The digital exhibition runs from 17.10.-25.10.2020.
Research projects from DXM – Design and Experimental Materials Research
All Good(s) – Presented by Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
The semester project Future Textiles – Digital Crafts focuses on the combination of traditional textile techniques and the potential of ‚digital fabrication‘.
Within this context, the use of digital tools were examined as an extension of human manual skills and their role in a contemporary understanding of craft, design and technology was explored. Especially the combination of digitally controlled processes (e.g. computer-controlled weaving and knitting, parametric modeling and 3D printing or e-textiles) in combination with current material research leads to a whole spectrum of new possibilities in the field of textiles and flexible surface systems.
The semester project was conducted within the research project Textile Prototyping Lab.
Works from the semester project Scaling Nature (1): Wrinkles were exhibited at the Domotex in Hannover. The Domotex is a trade fair for floor coverings, which deals with connections to applied research, thus giving artists, start-ups and students the opportunity to present themselves in the context of the “NuThinkers” Framing Trends.
A report on the research unit DXM – Design and Experimental Material Research of the Textile and Surface Design Department at weißensee kunsthochschule berlin in merlin | smart³ magazine, issue No. 3 | 2019.
A report on the R&D project SoundAdapt in smart³ magazine, issue No. 3 | 2019. This research project deals with the development of a kinetically variable surface that can influence the acoustic parameters within built environments in a fast and precise way. By integrating shape memory alloys, sensors and acoustically effective materials within the surface structure, an adaptive and self-contained overall system is to be created. This will be easily integrated into existing room structures enabling an acoustically variable use of space in an energy- and space-saving way.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus, the weißensee kunsthochschule berlin was invited to present projects from the fields of textiles and surface design and product design as part of the Bühne TOTAL festival. Seven works from the two semester projects GreenDesign 8.0 – Circular City Mapping Berlin’s Material Streams and Βιος λόγος (Bios Logos) were exhibited at the Bauhaus Dessau from 11 – 15 September 2019.
In the exhibition Bezugsstoffe (Cover Fabrics) the participating artists examine textiles for their qualities as visual and haptic indicators of changes in art, culture, society and technology. Seven positions are presented in installations and objects, questioning familiar notions of the use, production, expansion and representation of textile carriers of meaning.
Participating artists: Veronika Aumann, Sabrina Bosshard / Stefanie Kägi, Nadine Göpfert, Ebba Fransén Waldhör / Marei Rei, Adriana Quaiser / Theresa Kanz, Selina Reiterer und Christine Katscher / Ronja Svaneborg
Talk: Veronika Aumann: Self Active Materials, 6.June 2019, 7pm
At Techtextil 2019 DXM research project Textile Prototyping Lab is showing one of their latest developments for Stefan Diez’ PLUSMINUS lighting system for Vibia: a light rail formed of a soft, conductive textile belt that can incorporate a variety of bulbs for different lighting effects. The functionality of the belt and a variety of weaving designs were developed by TPL.
With her practice-based research project Digital Materials, Veronika Aumann is accepted as PhD candidate at the PhDArts program in January 2019. PhDArts is an international doctoral program in art and design at the Leiden University Academy of Creative and Performing Arts and the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague.
Exhibition at Wasserschloss Klaffenbach
The exhibition „Neue Textile Welten“ at Wasserschloss Klaffenbach is showing the „potentials of technical and intelligent textiles + smart materials“. Together with works by e.g. Bauerfeind AG, KARL MAYER Technische Textilien GmbH, warmX GmbH, Norafin Industries GmbH, Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut e.V. (STFI), Textilforschungsinstitut Thüringen Vogtland e.V. Greiz (TITV e.G.), TU Chemnitz and Design Research Lab der UdK Berlin weißensee kunsthochschule berlin and DXM are presenting five student projects and the research projects ‘Textile Prototyping Lab’ and ‘Digitale Materialien’.
https://www.c3-chemnitz.de/de/Wasserschloss-Klaffenbach-Gestaltung-Handwerk-Ausstellungen_1323.html
For the “Rundgang 2018”, the annual summer exhibition, the visitors were guided “hands-on” through the exhibition in the research space and informed about the different research projects. The visitors were able to experience and understand self-forming 3D textiles, experiments on shape-change materials and surfaces with reactive structures. The visitors were also able to get directly involved in textile prototyping at the Jacquard loom or body-learning at the nine stops of the fitness trail Shape Change Aerobic.
The series Autorials, a part of the research project Digital Materials by Veronika Aumann was exhibited at the Dutch Design Week in October 2018 as part of the presentation of the design collective Beyond Material.
Autorials is a series on (fictitious) responsive materials that can change shape, colour, volume, structure and transparency. By investigating various material explorations and their conversion into garments, possible future interaction figures between human, machine and material are sketched. The red example is titled Liquid Light. Depending on the physical movement (shaking) of the material, the liquid inside intensifies its coloured luminosity. The silver one is titled Malloon. Malloon is a material-machine that can automatically changes its shape and volume through inflating and deflating.
Lecture Julia Wolf (DXM) and Lilo Viehweg (Bauhaus Dessau Foundation) at the conference of the German Society for Design Theory and Research, HfG Karlsruhe Material als Experiment – Transdisciplinary Science Communication with the Methods of Design – What contribution can design methods make to the translation of complex, technology-based knowledge and what role do they play in the discourse on current material developments?
The accompanying publication with a paper by J. Wolf and L. Viehweg will be published in autumn 2019.
As part of the smart materials satellites research project, four workshops on Hearing, Feeling, Smelling, Tasting Material were held at Werkbundarchiv – Museum of Things in Berlin in cooperation with the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. Lead: Julia Wolf (DXM), Lilo Viehweg (Bauhaus Dessau Foundation)
https://www.museumderdinge.org/events-education/sensing-materials-lab
In cooperation with the Department of Interaction Design of the Zurich University of the Arts (Clemens Winkler, Luke Franzke), the Material Archive ZHdK (Franziska Müller-Reissmann) and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation (Lilo Viehweg), a workshop and exhibition on the subject of materials of the future was held together with students. As part of the ZHdK Highlights, “Material as Experiment | Past Present Future” was shown, including student works from weißensee.