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Thora has experience in Architectural Design and Microbiology and is a practising design researcher specialising in living materials and biohybrid fabrication.
Thora H Arnardottir is a PhD researcher and an interdisciplinary designer with a background in architecture. She is awaiting her viva for her PhD titled 'Bacterial Sculpting' at Newcastle University in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape. She has a passion for pursuing analogy with nature through her work, not merely taking inspiration from our ecology but, speculating concerning our changing relationship with it through engineered biological systems and new material processes. Her work addresses the possibilities of integrating biological systems in the built environment and focuses on more-than-human design and cross-species interaction. With expertise in biomineralization (MICP), her research combines biotic agency with design concepts and innovative crafting techniques.
Thora holds a master's degree in Advanced Architecture from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) in Spain and a bachelor’s degree from the Arts University Bournemouth (AUB), UK.
She is currently an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins on the MA Biodesign program and a Research Associate at the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, where she manages the Macro Bio-Design Lab, and on projects centered on the Living Construction theme.
At Newcastle, she has worked on the EPSRC-funded Living Manufacture project, and the EPSRC-funded Thinking Soils project, where she has been a design-led researcher exploring the design potentials of living materials which respond to physical forces in their environment.
She is also a founder and director of Unruly Matters Ltd and a co-founder of the Biobabes collective, an experimental design and research collective.
Developing biomineralised tiles with locally sourced volcanic aggregates for Iceland's first eco-house.
An ongoing research project at the HBBE that focuses on creating a new biofabrication system based on controlled biological production of biopolymers through growth.
