Karola Dierichs is an architect and a researcher at the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) in Stuttgart with Professor Achim Menges since 2010. She has been educated at the Technical University of Braunschweig, the ETH Zurich and the Architectural Association (AA) in London and has graduated from the Emergent Technologies and Design Program with Distinction in 2009.

She has been teaching at the Architectural Association/London, the Städelschule Architecture Class/Frankfurt and the Institute for Computational Design and Construction/Stuttgart.

At the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) Karola Dierichs is conducting research on Aggregate Architectures, where she is developing synthetic granular materials as designer matter in architecture. She has been engaged in transdisciplinary research collaborating nationally and internationally, among others with the Institute for Multiscale Simulation (MSS), Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and the Behringer Lab, Duke University, USA. She has published numerous articles in her field and lectured both within Europe and the USA. Her research on designed granular materials has been recognized with the Holcim Acknowledgement Award Europe 2014. Selected works have been included in the traveling exhibition “Hello Robot.” starting 2017 at the Vitra Design Museum/Germany and the opening exhibition “Minding the Digital” of the Design Society in Shenzen/China.

Achim Menges is a registered architect and professor at the University of Stuttgart where he is the founding director of the Institute for Computational Design. Currently he also is Visiting Professor in Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and Visiting Professor of the Emergent Technologies and Design Graduate Program at the Architectural Association, London. Achim Menges’ research and practice focuses on the development of integrative design processes at the intersection of morphogenetic design computation, biomimetic engineering and digital fabrication. His projects and design research has received numerous international awards, and has been published and exhibited worldwide. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris and the FRAC Centre, Orléans.