Born in Bogot , Colombia in 1995, Carolina Pacheco is a Santiago de Chile-based designer specializing in the research, development, and cross-disciplinary integration of biomaterials. Her work focuses primarily on locally sourced, experimental material innovations and their broader social implications.
Raised and educated in Santiago de Chile, Pacheco earned her Bachelor’s degree in IntegralDesign from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in 2019. Her thesis project, Calcáreo, investigated the potential of local waste—specifically mussel shells—in the creation of biomaterials. In 2020, she attended a post-baccalaureate semester with Holland’s Dutch Invertuals Academy, where her core project, 1.5, explored social and environmental inequities connected to water scarcity through the lens of Chile’s avocado plantation territories.
“My time at dieDAS reinforced the power of empathy. The program encouraged us to look closer at others’ experiences—not just humans, but all species—and to learn to dig beyond what you first see. We need to consider how we can use design to better understand, respond to, and narrate the languages of all that surrounds us.”
In addition to her own practice, Pacheco is Coordinator and General Advisor of the BiomaterialsLaboratory at the Fab Lab Austral in Chile’s southernmost city, Puerto Williams. Her work has been presented at a number of esteemed venues, including the True Matter exhibition withDutch Invertuals Academy during Dutch Design Week 2020; Symbiotic Habitat at Design Miami/Basel 2021, presented by dieDAS and Dr. Hauschka; and the Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño (BID) in Spain in 2021, among others.
Caroline Pacheco
supported by
