Berlin Fellowship 2019 — Architecture
Vita
Efilena Baseta is an architect and engineer (National Technical University Athens) with a master's degree in Advanced Architecture (Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, IAAC). Her interest lies in exploring material behaviours, physically and digitally, in order to create shape-adaptable structures. Since 2014, Efilena Baseta has been a co-founding partner of Noumena, a multidisciplinary practice that merges computational strategies with advanced manufacturing techniques. She has designed and coordinated 'Advanced Construction' exhibitions and led various educational programs internationally. In 2014 she received the Innovative Structure award from the IAAC and in 2018 the Emerging Research Paper award from the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA). From 2016 to 2018, Efilena Baseta was a Marie-Curie researcher. She is currently studying for her Ph.D. at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Residency
“During the residency, I plan to broaden my current research, which focuses on the development of a bending-active material system of controlled deformations. In particular, I aim to use digital fabrication technologies to produce computationally designed structural elements that change their stiffness according to their curvature. The performance of the latter elements will be physically and digitally tested. The advantage of the system is that it relies exclusively on material properties and geometrical configurations. This means that there is no need for electronics, thus reducing the cost and simplifying production. The system can be used as a rapid form-giving strategy in static structures or as a compliant mechanism for shape-adaptable structures.”