- Critical Matter
Behnaz Farahi is an award-winning designer and critical maker working at the intersection of fashion, architecture and interactive design. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab, directing the Critical Matter research group. She is also the inaugural Morningside Academy for Design (MAD) Professor at MIT, where she works to strengthen and connect design across disciplines and departments throughout the Institute.
Trained as an architect, Farahi's work focuses on fostering empathetic relationships between the human body and its surrounding environment. For this she draws upon emerging technologies and morphological and behavioral principles inspired by natural systems. Her projects address critical issues such as feminism, emotion, bodily perception, and social interaction. She specializes in computational design, interactive technologies, additive manufacturing, and digital fabrication technologies.
Farahi is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Digital Design Award, Innovation by Design Fast Company Award, and the World Technology Award. She has co-edited 'Interactive Design: Towards a Responsive Environment' (Birkhäuser Verlag, 2023) and '3D Printed Body Architecture' (Wiley, 2017).
Her work has been included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. It has also been exhibited internationally at Ars Electronica, Linz and Context Art Miami, SIGGRAPH, La Piscine Museum in France and A+D Architecture and Design Museum in LA. It has also been featured in several magazines and online websites including WIRED, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Frame Magazine, and many more.