Miami-based Germane Barnes’ award-winning research and design practice investigates the connection between architecture and identity, examining architecture’s social and political agency through historical research and design speculation, with particular focus on the relationship between the built environment and Black domesticity. In addition to his eponymous practice, Barnes is currently an Assistant Professor and the Director of The Community Housing & Identity Lab (CHIL) at the University of Miami School of Architecture, a testing ground for the physical and theoretical investigations of architecture’s social and political resiliency.
Barnes’ work has been presented and supported by several illustrious institutions and organizations, including The Museum of Modern Art NY, San Francisco MoMA, LACMA, Chicago Architecture Biennial, MAS Context, The Graham Foundation, Miami Design District, Design Miami/, and The National Museum of African American History. He is winner of the 2021 Rome Prize in Architecture, the 2021 Harvard Wheelwright Prize, the 2021 Architectural League Prize, and an inaugural grant from Theaster Gates and Prada’s Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab.
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.
"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."