dieDas Advisory Council

Omer

Arbel

Artist and Designer

Omer Arbel is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Vancouver. His creative output is broad, ranging from materials research, lighting design, and building design to site-specific installations. He is one of two cofounders of Bocci, a Canadian design and manufacturing company.

‍"I am interested in the ideas that can come about when small groups of committed individuals work in isolated pockets of time and space.“

Christian

Benimana

Architect, Senior Principal and Managing Director, MASS Design Group

Rwanda-based architect Christian Benimana is Senior Principal and Managing Director of MASS Design Group, an award-winning non-profit organization dedicated to architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. Benimana is particularly interested in the innovative use of materials and technologies for sustainable designs. Among other roles, he is also currently chairman of both the Education Board of the Rwanda Institute of Architects and the Education Board of the East African Institute of Architects.

‍“ There are not many design programs taking the risks of tackling fundamentally challenging, sensitive problems of our past in an attempt to decipher a brighter future. dieDAS is one of those. I believe that design is a powerful tool in this arsenal, and I can’t help but offer my support to a cause I am so committed to myself.”

Meriem

Chabani

Architect, Urban Planner, and Founding Partner of New South

Meriem Chabani is an architect, urban planner, and founding partner of New South, a Paris and Brussels-based architecture and research practice. Her work prioritizes spaces for vulnerable bodies and territories in tension. By questioning power dynamics and stakeholder relations, her projects include in-depth work on human practices to inform spatial resolution.

She currently teaches at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris Malaquais (FR), Royal College of Arts (UK), and HEAD Geneva (CH). Since 2019, she’s served as an expert on affordable housing and inclusive cities for the French delegation at the World Urban Forum. Chabani’s work has been showcased at a number of international architecture Biennials, including Venice, Istanbul, Tirana, Oslo, and Lagos. In 2020, she won the Europe 40 under 40award from The European Centre for Architecture and The Chicago Athenaeum. She is a recipient of the Graham Foundation Grant, and was named one of the leading young female architects in France by AMC in 2023. Photo by Kaname Onoyama

Prof. Bettina

Erzgräber

Rector of Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design at Halle and Professor of Drawing and Visual Arts

German artist and educator Bettina Erzgräber has served as Professor of Drawing and Visual Arts at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle since 2015. From 2016 to 2017, she was the school's Equal Rights Representive; from 2017 to 2022, she held the position of Dean of the University's Design Faculty. In 2022, Erzgräber was appointed Rector of the University. As an artist, Erzgräber has earned numerous honors, including the Salzburg Grant from the city of Mainz, a grant from the Baden-Württemberg Art Foundation, special prize from the Marler Video Art Prize, and a scholarship from the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris of the State of Baden-Württemberg, among others. Her work has been exhibited at prestigious locations both nationally and internationally.

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"Creating, securing and maintaining free spaces to give room to unusual ideas is the essential foundation for culture, art and design. The burdened history of the Saalecker Wekstätten literally demands us to constantly remind ourselves of the great value of intellectual freedom. In an extraordinary place, DieDAS offers opportunities for the urgent and critical discussions of our present as a basis for designing futures in undreamed-of ways. Diversity, free thinking and openness to the world will henceforth be the focus of constant critical review. I look forward to the exchange and to helping shape the path of DieDAS."

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Hella

Jongerius

Designer and founder of Jongeriuslab design studio

Hella Jongerius is one of the world’s leading designers, known for her research-driven approach and vigorous work on uniting craftsmanship and industrial production, infusing mass produced objects with imperfection, sensibility and character. She founded her Jongeriuslab design studio in 1993, and has worked on commissioned projects for Vitra, Maharam, the interior design of the Delegates’ Lounge of the United Nations Headquarters and the cabin interiors of the Dutch airline KLM. She has also initiatied many independent projects, with exhibitions at the Design Museum London (2017), Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2017), the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (2018), Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2019) and Gropius Bau in Berlin (2021). Jongerius’ work can be found in permanent collections including the MoMA, New York, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Since 2009 she has lived and worked in Berlin.

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“We need to find new ways, to tackle the old systems and to reconfigure our relations to the earth and all its inhabitants. Therefore, I believe we need to design new systems and new forms of education. This is the reason why I contribute to the dieDAS academy, which is based in a trouble area, where in creative spirit of cooperation, talented young individuals work together for common good. What happens in a region is happening to the world and is happening to us. In the fringes is often where the action happens, in cultural vitality with interconnectedness of all beings,- try to design a way out of this shit.”

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Maurizio

Montalti

Designer and Artistic Director 2020-2022

Maurizio Montalti is an Italian-born, Amsterdam-based designer, researcher, educator and entrepreneur. Working at the intersection of design and biotech, he is a recognized pioneer in material culture discourse and development, with a specialty in natural biomaterials. He holds an M.A. in Conceptual Design in Context from Design Academy Eindhoven and an M.A. in Engineering and Industrial Management from The University of Bologna.

In addition to serving as dieDAS’s inaugural artistic director 2020-2022, Montalti heads up the multidisciplinary practice Officina Corpuscoli and is also Cofounder, Designer, and R&D Director of Mogu, a design-innovation company dedicated to high-performance biomaterials and finished products deriving from fungi. His work has been exhibited at renowned institutions such as the MoMA (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Design Museum (London), and MAXXI (Rome), among others.

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"Today, it is evermore important to realise about the pivotal role of the Design and Creative practices as catalysts for triggering effective change, at both societal and eco-systemic levels. Conscious of such urgencies, the role of organisations such as dieDAS is absolutely key. Functioning as a thoroughly inclusive platform, supporting talented creatives in investigating complex contemporary subjects, while fostering deep critical discussions, positive collisions, and unorthodox manifestation by means of unique collective learning experiences, dieDAS paves the way to new models, challenging the status quo through the introduction of effective paradigm shifts, as driven by intuition, empathy, creativity, and competence."

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https://www.corpuscoli.com

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Prof. Sarah

Whiting

Dean of Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Cofounder of WW Architecture

American architect and educator Sarah Whiting has served as Dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design since 2019. She is also co-founder of WW Architecture in Cambridge. Whiting previously served as Dean of Rice University's School of Architecture, and she has taught design, history, and theory at Princeton University, the Illinois Institute of Technology, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Florida. An expert in architectural theory and urbanism, she has a particular interest in modern and contemporary architecture’s relationship with politics, economics, and society, and how the built environment shapes the nature of public life.

‍“As designers, historians, and citizens of a global world, none of us can afford to turn away from ugly moments that tarnish our collective history. dieDAS enables us to confront our past while not being shackled by it. Paul Schultze-Naumburg’s Saalecker Werkstätten are here transformed into a site of productive progress—the production of sustainability, of craft, and of design, but also the production of new relationships among designers and disciplines, and the production of critical histories of our past and lessons for our future.”