Carolina is an architect, designer and researcher working at the intersection of architecture, design, living systems, and critical technologies. At the Royal College of Art, she is Senior Research Tutor in Information Experience Design (IED). Carolina’s research explores the culture, practices, tools and economies of working and designing with living systems at different scales, ranging from experiences, products, architecture and urban ecologies. Her  work also looks at imagining and delivering possible futures to challenge and provoke discourses of future technological, social, cultural, political, economic and environmental issues.

Prior to joining IED, I was a Lecturer in Design Products at the RCA where she led the DesignFutures pathway. Other previous roles include working as an Associate Lecturer at Interdisciplinary Studios at the MA in Biodesign at University of the ArtsLondon, and working as Visiting Lecturer in the research cluster on Bio-integrated design at the Bartlett, School of Architecture at UCL. As part of UCL, Carolina also worked as a Research Associate on the AHRC-funded NOTBAD project that looked into contemporary efforts against Antimicrobial Resistance(AMR) by developing new materials that could alter and improve health and the human microbiome. She also worked for two years as a teaching fellow in theSchool of Architecture at Newcastle University, where I co-tutored theExperimental Architecture studio.

Carolina completed aPhD by creative practice at the School of Architecture, Newcastle University, which explored the use of living and semi-living matter in design contexts. The thesis Bio-material probes: Design engagements with living systems, is articulated by a series of interventions and projects that examine and probe how design practices change when micro-organisms are understood as designmatter.

Collaboration is crucial in Carolina’s research and creative practice. She has worked with scientists, artists and designers, and her work has been exhibited internationally in venues that include London, Finland, Taiwan, Denmark, The Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Montreal, Tel Aviv and India.

For a list of publications and work click.