Mirko Daneluzzo
Mirko is an architect, and designer, Co-Founder and Head of Design of Nyxo Visionary Design, an architecture and product design practice based in Dubai. In 2018 he joined the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation as founding professor where he conducts courses in the Foundation program and Product Design concentration.
His design agenda consists in the understanding and management of intricate transdisciplinary scenarios, using material systems and production processes as mediators. His research interest consists, on the one hand, in the use of digital computational and fabrication tools to set up apparatuses of simulation that can offer new aesthetic languages and capable to re-territorialize the products in a posthuman, bio-integrated fashion. On the other hand, it is about the impact of the transformation of the artifacts from prosthesis to bodies, in other words, from objects that are extensions of the human body to other bodies capable of autonomous agency.
With Nyxo, he experiences different levels of action. He explores various technologies and typologies of artifacts, from serial products to research projects, for companies operating in different fields, from aeronautics to medical devices. The independent research of the studio focuses on the application of additive manufacturing technologies for End-Use productions at different scales. With the architectural investigation, develops the interweaving of bio-geo-climatic dynamics in the morphogenesis of spaces for a fusion with the local context.
His work has been exhibited internationally in several events including the Architecture Biennale in Venice 2010, Beijing 2010, and Tallinn 2017, and in different Design Weeks, including Tokyo, Dubai and Shanghai.
His design agenda consists in the understanding and management of intricate transdisciplinary scenarios, using material systems and production processes as mediators. His research interest consists, on the one hand, in the use of digital computational and fabrication tools to set up apparatuses of simulation that can offer new aesthetic languages and capable to re-territorialize the products in a posthuman, bio-integrated fashion. On the other hand, it is about the impact of the transformation of the artifacts from prosthesis to bodies, in other words, from objects that are extensions of the human body to other bodies capable of autonomous agency.
With Nyxo, he experiences different levels of action. He explores various technologies and typologies of artifacts, from serial products to research projects, for companies operating in different fields, from aeronautics to medical devices. The independent research of the studio focuses on the application of additive manufacturing technologies for End-Use productions at different scales. With the architectural investigation, develops the interweaving of bio-geo-climatic dynamics in the morphogenesis of spaces for a fusion with the local context.
His work has been exhibited internationally in several events including the Architecture Biennale in Venice 2010, Beijing 2010, and Tallinn 2017, and in different Design Weeks, including Tokyo, Dubai and Shanghai.
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Papers by Mirko Daneluzzo
design, discussing how designers can use a strategy based on Multispecies
Ethnography and Participatory Design, considering nonhuman agents to create efficient
designs. To illustrate this, it describes a project of 3D-printed biomimetic structures for
plants that enhance humidity levels in internal environments. The project methodology
started by analyzing the ideal humidity for indoor plants and humans, which is between
40% to 50%. Subsequently, a biomimicry study was done to understand how to generate
a cooler indoor microclimate using passive strategies and how to create an effective
interlocking system to connect structures. 3D-printed structures as supports for water
droplets were designed according to their performance and placed in different
arrangements around the plant itself. The structures were tested, and humidity levels
increased by approximately 13%. The paper discusses the resultant evidence-based
design and a new approach to mass customization.
It asks how designers can incorporate a multispecies approach to creating greater intelligence and performance projects. To illustrate this, we describe a project of “ornaments” for plants, culminating from a course in an academic setting. The project methodology starts with “Thing Ethnography” analyzing the movement of a water bottle inside a house and its interaction with different objects. The relationship between water and plant was chosen to be further developed, considering water as a material to increase environmental humidity for the plant and brightness through light reflectance and refraction. 3D-printed biomimetic structures as supports for water droplets were designed according to their performance and placed in different arrangements around the plant itself. Humidity levels and illuminance of the structures were measured. Ultimately, this created a new approach to working with plants and mass customization. The paper discusses the resultant evidence-based design and environmental values.
The paper explores ways to enhance, through Design, the relationships between the Objects constituting urban systems: on the one hand the incorporation into the process of a multi-layered set of projections, and on the other hand the definition of products as enablers of new interactions between the objects of the system. It is about the ability to landscaping the urban environment and promoting spontaneous behaviors within the communities, to increase its economic and environmental sustainability, as well as the quality of life, beyond a reductionist individual utilitarian design strategy.
The paper discusses a series of design proposals developed in the course “Responsive environments: Reshaping the Urban” as part of the Product Design concentration program at the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation. There is a focus on the adopted methodology and a reflection on what could be the role of product designers in the shaping of the contemporary urban spaces, from domestic objects, building systems and urban devices.
The paper describes the curriculum development of a first year workshop and studio, as an integrated systems of guided explorations on technical skills and their application to articulate the projects. The analysis considers specific modules within these courses, which are aligned with the authors’ research topics around design inspired by nature and design for sustainability. We discuss the different structures and goals of the courses, how they support each other, how we embed our research into the courses, and also progress our research through reflection and elaboration on the student’s projects and results.
On the one hand the paper examines a studio project that uses design fiction and analysis on recent technological innovations as a mode of research to arrive at concepts of a “Symbiotic Creature”. On the other hand, it analyses a workshop project focusing on the explorations around the ideation and fabrication of biomaterials and the methodologies to evaluate the results. The paper offers ideas for design educators, and discusses the challenges and achievements when implementing this type of education, as well as some reflections on our personal views around teaching and research.
semiotics and sensorial qualities, inhaling in products their
emotional relation to the user, distinguish the discipline from
other engineering disciplines. The question this paper wants to
investigate is the way of how these values still dominate the design
process in an always more immaterial world, and how educational
models can drive the required change of knowledge for a new
generation of designers. The illustrated case refers to the innovative
approach of the Duabi Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI),
a new established Design University in the United Arab Emirates.
This through the specific experience of a workshop-like Course that
guides the students between analogue and digital explorations in
a seamless and non-linear way, as a narration tool, a constructive
method of storytelling inside the product development and a
methodology to exploit different technologies beyond their
superficial raison d’etre.
The theoretical contributions related to define a form in design
underlies different methods, rules and proportional studies,
as well as material characteristics and surface treatment. The
maxim “Form Follows Function” is a principle associated with
20th-century modernist has been influencing for decades the
form giving decisions. But the processes which guide our all
lives have changed: the world has become timelessly digital;
everything is at the same time everywhere available. Design has
become a process rather than a definition of a form, has become
a service rather than a function. Consequently, this influences the
way of how designer will need to be able to narrate the process,
the immaterial service, the augmented reality of physical objects.
Keywords: Additive manufacturing, Aerospace, Biomimicry, Biodesign, Biohybrid, Future scenarios, In-situ resource utilization, Next Nature, Space Colonization, Speculative Design
features like Malleability (the ability to be hammered
or pressed without breaking or craking),
fusibility (the ability to be fused or melted) and
ductibility (the ability to be drawn out into wires).
These are manipulability1 features, they give us
the idea what we can do with the material in
terms of transformations. On the other hand we
can see metals through the physical phenomena
such as electrical and thermal conductivity or in
some cases magnetism. We could even go deeper
in the understanding of the material within
the chemical/physical dimension, with implication
in nanotechnology and the idea of programmable
matter2.
These considerations give me the possibility to
distinguish different ways of transformation of
the material, let consider them in two families:
the first one where the hand and the machinery
as an extension of the hand, are the control
tools, the drivers. The second one, where the drivers
are the interactions of physical conditions.
To better investigate the realm of the material,
we have to use our body. We think physically, so
the point is to expand it directly to give us the
possibility to see things differently, from an augmented
perspective. Our body is able to easily
incorporate exogenous apparatuses, able to let
us think process, and to do so we have to reinforce
the idea of a “totalizing immersion”, a bodily
experience able to activate our senses, but not
only, able to refine them, able to expand them to
new realms. To build new senses and new sensitivities,
to bring back intelligence and sensitivity in
our manufacturing processes and to bring back
intelligence into the material itself.
been associated to the concept of order, that
inherently brings the idea of purity, calmness and
beauty. “Anyhow even if symmetry as a concept
is seductive, there is evidence that not only
asymmetry. is present in the physics subatomic
world, and at any level in the biological world,
from biochemistry to brains, but also that
asymmetry is used and developed in the pure
arts”.*1
An awareness of a different symmetry is born,
thanks to a vision of nature where imperfection
has an important role. Kant states: “All the rigid
regularities (as the mathematical lines) are
inherently revolting to the taste, because their
observation do not offer lasting pleasures … and
you get tired almost immediately.”
The art historian, Ernst Gombrich, explains the
banality implied in the symmetry: “Once we have
seized the order principle, we are able to learn
things by heart. [...] We have easily seen enough
because it does not surprise us anymore. *2
It is interesting to notice as Kant associate the
idea of order, rigid regularities, to concepts as
“taste” and “pleasure”, while Gombrich associates
it to memory matters, it is not about pure aesthetic
values, but about perception trough the
senses: it is a change of the neuronal state due to
the contact of our senses with the environment.
In “Repetition, difference” we will consider the repetition value as difference, analyzing in short the practice of the epic poetry in the ancient Greece. A cyclic repetition, where the version is similar but not the same as its former. And it’s exactly the difference that makes the repetition a creative tool. In fact the difference brings to the “invention”, without it, every part would remain the same, simply generating a repetition.
In the subsequent part (“Repetition, sameness”) will emerge the role that the technology has taken to condition the repetition concept and to transform it from creative tool to an alienation instrument that form and deform us.
In “Originality, creation”, we try to identify the characters of the contemporary creativity, a creativity where the concept of origin doesn’t make sense anymore, but everything is pushed through a different where the copy of something else generates an “another”
From the practice of the Kata to the mantra recitation, in the eastern culture the people live in a more serene way the repetition idea. In the western culture, repetition is often a synonym of boredom, a real sequence of planned actions, a sort of cage, for a society continuously searching for innovations. Our main instrument for the innovation search is the remix, the restoring on cycle with a new formatting (“Re-cycle, the re-mix: the computer talent”): thanks to the strong expansion of the computerized instruments, we are living a redefinition of the repetitiveness on creative way. While in the classic experience where there’s continuity with the tradition, our contemporary is more an idea of copy and paste to create cultural Frankensteins. One of the art that conditions and represents our present the most, where there’s a continuous use of these repetition practices, is the cinema world, we close then with a little window hunting for remakes, quotes and clones.
Books by Mirko Daneluzzo
design, discussing how designers can use a strategy based on Multispecies
Ethnography and Participatory Design, considering nonhuman agents to create efficient
designs. To illustrate this, it describes a project of 3D-printed biomimetic structures for
plants that enhance humidity levels in internal environments. The project methodology
started by analyzing the ideal humidity for indoor plants and humans, which is between
40% to 50%. Subsequently, a biomimicry study was done to understand how to generate
a cooler indoor microclimate using passive strategies and how to create an effective
interlocking system to connect structures. 3D-printed structures as supports for water
droplets were designed according to their performance and placed in different
arrangements around the plant itself. The structures were tested, and humidity levels
increased by approximately 13%. The paper discusses the resultant evidence-based
design and a new approach to mass customization.
It asks how designers can incorporate a multispecies approach to creating greater intelligence and performance projects. To illustrate this, we describe a project of “ornaments” for plants, culminating from a course in an academic setting. The project methodology starts with “Thing Ethnography” analyzing the movement of a water bottle inside a house and its interaction with different objects. The relationship between water and plant was chosen to be further developed, considering water as a material to increase environmental humidity for the plant and brightness through light reflectance and refraction. 3D-printed biomimetic structures as supports for water droplets were designed according to their performance and placed in different arrangements around the plant itself. Humidity levels and illuminance of the structures were measured. Ultimately, this created a new approach to working with plants and mass customization. The paper discusses the resultant evidence-based design and environmental values.
The paper explores ways to enhance, through Design, the relationships between the Objects constituting urban systems: on the one hand the incorporation into the process of a multi-layered set of projections, and on the other hand the definition of products as enablers of new interactions between the objects of the system. It is about the ability to landscaping the urban environment and promoting spontaneous behaviors within the communities, to increase its economic and environmental sustainability, as well as the quality of life, beyond a reductionist individual utilitarian design strategy.
The paper discusses a series of design proposals developed in the course “Responsive environments: Reshaping the Urban” as part of the Product Design concentration program at the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation. There is a focus on the adopted methodology and a reflection on what could be the role of product designers in the shaping of the contemporary urban spaces, from domestic objects, building systems and urban devices.
The paper describes the curriculum development of a first year workshop and studio, as an integrated systems of guided explorations on technical skills and their application to articulate the projects. The analysis considers specific modules within these courses, which are aligned with the authors’ research topics around design inspired by nature and design for sustainability. We discuss the different structures and goals of the courses, how they support each other, how we embed our research into the courses, and also progress our research through reflection and elaboration on the student’s projects and results.
On the one hand the paper examines a studio project that uses design fiction and analysis on recent technological innovations as a mode of research to arrive at concepts of a “Symbiotic Creature”. On the other hand, it analyses a workshop project focusing on the explorations around the ideation and fabrication of biomaterials and the methodologies to evaluate the results. The paper offers ideas for design educators, and discusses the challenges and achievements when implementing this type of education, as well as some reflections on our personal views around teaching and research.
semiotics and sensorial qualities, inhaling in products their
emotional relation to the user, distinguish the discipline from
other engineering disciplines. The question this paper wants to
investigate is the way of how these values still dominate the design
process in an always more immaterial world, and how educational
models can drive the required change of knowledge for a new
generation of designers. The illustrated case refers to the innovative
approach of the Duabi Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI),
a new established Design University in the United Arab Emirates.
This through the specific experience of a workshop-like Course that
guides the students between analogue and digital explorations in
a seamless and non-linear way, as a narration tool, a constructive
method of storytelling inside the product development and a
methodology to exploit different technologies beyond their
superficial raison d’etre.
The theoretical contributions related to define a form in design
underlies different methods, rules and proportional studies,
as well as material characteristics and surface treatment. The
maxim “Form Follows Function” is a principle associated with
20th-century modernist has been influencing for decades the
form giving decisions. But the processes which guide our all
lives have changed: the world has become timelessly digital;
everything is at the same time everywhere available. Design has
become a process rather than a definition of a form, has become
a service rather than a function. Consequently, this influences the
way of how designer will need to be able to narrate the process,
the immaterial service, the augmented reality of physical objects.
Keywords: Additive manufacturing, Aerospace, Biomimicry, Biodesign, Biohybrid, Future scenarios, In-situ resource utilization, Next Nature, Space Colonization, Speculative Design
features like Malleability (the ability to be hammered
or pressed without breaking or craking),
fusibility (the ability to be fused or melted) and
ductibility (the ability to be drawn out into wires).
These are manipulability1 features, they give us
the idea what we can do with the material in
terms of transformations. On the other hand we
can see metals through the physical phenomena
such as electrical and thermal conductivity or in
some cases magnetism. We could even go deeper
in the understanding of the material within
the chemical/physical dimension, with implication
in nanotechnology and the idea of programmable
matter2.
These considerations give me the possibility to
distinguish different ways of transformation of
the material, let consider them in two families:
the first one where the hand and the machinery
as an extension of the hand, are the control
tools, the drivers. The second one, where the drivers
are the interactions of physical conditions.
To better investigate the realm of the material,
we have to use our body. We think physically, so
the point is to expand it directly to give us the
possibility to see things differently, from an augmented
perspective. Our body is able to easily
incorporate exogenous apparatuses, able to let
us think process, and to do so we have to reinforce
the idea of a “totalizing immersion”, a bodily
experience able to activate our senses, but not
only, able to refine them, able to expand them to
new realms. To build new senses and new sensitivities,
to bring back intelligence and sensitivity in
our manufacturing processes and to bring back
intelligence into the material itself.
been associated to the concept of order, that
inherently brings the idea of purity, calmness and
beauty. “Anyhow even if symmetry as a concept
is seductive, there is evidence that not only
asymmetry. is present in the physics subatomic
world, and at any level in the biological world,
from biochemistry to brains, but also that
asymmetry is used and developed in the pure
arts”.*1
An awareness of a different symmetry is born,
thanks to a vision of nature where imperfection
has an important role. Kant states: “All the rigid
regularities (as the mathematical lines) are
inherently revolting to the taste, because their
observation do not offer lasting pleasures … and
you get tired almost immediately.”
The art historian, Ernst Gombrich, explains the
banality implied in the symmetry: “Once we have
seized the order principle, we are able to learn
things by heart. [...] We have easily seen enough
because it does not surprise us anymore. *2
It is interesting to notice as Kant associate the
idea of order, rigid regularities, to concepts as
“taste” and “pleasure”, while Gombrich associates
it to memory matters, it is not about pure aesthetic
values, but about perception trough the
senses: it is a change of the neuronal state due to
the contact of our senses with the environment.
In “Repetition, difference” we will consider the repetition value as difference, analyzing in short the practice of the epic poetry in the ancient Greece. A cyclic repetition, where the version is similar but not the same as its former. And it’s exactly the difference that makes the repetition a creative tool. In fact the difference brings to the “invention”, without it, every part would remain the same, simply generating a repetition.
In the subsequent part (“Repetition, sameness”) will emerge the role that the technology has taken to condition the repetition concept and to transform it from creative tool to an alienation instrument that form and deform us.
In “Originality, creation”, we try to identify the characters of the contemporary creativity, a creativity where the concept of origin doesn’t make sense anymore, but everything is pushed through a different where the copy of something else generates an “another”
From the practice of the Kata to the mantra recitation, in the eastern culture the people live in a more serene way the repetition idea. In the western culture, repetition is often a synonym of boredom, a real sequence of planned actions, a sort of cage, for a society continuously searching for innovations. Our main instrument for the innovation search is the remix, the restoring on cycle with a new formatting (“Re-cycle, the re-mix: the computer talent”): thanks to the strong expansion of the computerized instruments, we are living a redefinition of the repetitiveness on creative way. While in the classic experience where there’s continuity with the tradition, our contemporary is more an idea of copy and paste to create cultural Frankensteins. One of the art that conditions and represents our present the most, where there’s a continuous use of these repetition practices, is the cinema world, we close then with a little window hunting for remakes, quotes and clones.