‘I am eager to explore how unique qualities of ‘living materials’ can transform the way we think, feel and act.’
Hazal Ertürkan is a researcher within the Caradt research group Biobased Art and Design. She also works as a design researcher and material designer at Delft University of Technology. Her current PhD project is collaboration between TU Delft and Avans Caradt.
Hazal Ertürkan is a researcher and multidisciplinary designer. Hazal completed her Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design at METU in Ankara, Turkey, in 2015, where she subsequently joined the Master of Science Programme in the same department at METU.
During her MSc, she was accepted for TU Delft Design for Interaction MSc Programme with a full coverage scholarship. In 2016, she conducted a research and design project with the Delft Institute of Positive Design. In 2017, Hazal completed her MSc graduation project that questions our relationship with time and aims to unveil one’s subjective experience of time by using biomaterials and the body as an interface between humans and practices to replace the negative perception about the passage of time at TU Delft, Delft Institute of Positive Design. The project was exhibited at the International Festival of Technology (IFoT) 2018. The revised version of the concept will be exhibited in Dutch Design Week 2023. During the project, she designed a biomaterial in collaboration with the Material Experience Lab and entered the field of biodesign.
After her internship at Philips, in 2019, she started to work as a researcher and biodesigner in TU Delft, Materializing Futures Group and Caradt (Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology) where she conducted projects with multidisciplinary teams (including biologists, storytelling experts, and researchers) on living materials (e.g., from algae, fungi and bacteria), immersive digital tools (e.g., AR and VR) and storytelling methods. During the project, she mentored master’s graduation projects, gave lectures, coached students, and designed research artefacts. In 2020, her design for the Still Alive Exhibition in Het Nieuwe Instituut, Glow the Way, was exhibited at Dutch Design Week 2020 and in the book Still Alive 2020.
In 2021, she collaborated with Affect Lab and storytelling expert Sarah Lugthart to create a speculative storytelling toolkit for living materials, Miraculous Futures of Living Materials, to envision alternative futures where humans have a symbiosis with living materials. Her work has been published in various international conferences such as DRS 2022, ELIA Biennial 2022, IASDR 2023. In 2021, she started to collaborate with Polymorf and recently, she founded a multidisciplinary research and design studio, Studio Bleu.
Her body of work is driven by a deep sense of responsibility towards the environment and ‘more than human’. It focuses on experience design, novel narrative forms, and physical/digital mediums to inspire future alternative ways of living and harmonious coexistence between humans, nature and technology
Living Material Experiences: Facilitating Experiential Understanding of Living Materials in Material Driven Design (2019 – 2023)
This research project aims to facilitate a holistic understanding of ‘living material’ experiences in material-driven design. It focusses on novel design research approaches that not only foreground the role of material qualities but also the role of novel narrative forms in shaping our experiences with materials.
Future Food and Eating Practices: Microbiome-Centric Dining (2023)
The future alternative food and eating practices are a prominent area in current research and design endeavors. However, to date, the human microbiome and its affect on human body has not been taking into account during the development of possible future eating practices. But, how would seeing the human body as an ecology rather than an independent being affect our eating behaviour and practices?
Research Group: Biobased Art and Design
The research group Biobased Art and Design capitalises on the role of artistic practice in unlocking the unique potentials of living organisms for everyday materials and communicating these to a broader public. In doing so, the group aims to instigate and accelerate our widespread understanding, further development and usage of such materials. The group’s research approach encourages tangible interactions with the living organisms, such as algae, fungi, plants and bacteria, to explore and understand their unique qualities and constraints through diverse technical and creative methods taking artists, designers and scientists as equal and active partners in the material creation.
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‘How can art and design cultivate critical expressions rooted in ethics of care and relationality to influence ecological, social, and economic structures?’
Delfina Fantini van Ditmar 
‘It is through the “not-knowing” that a stimulating and caring environment can be created to confidently share vulnerability.’
Risk Hazekamp
‘Exploring and integrating novel perspectives to our everyday through the eyes of fungi.’
Wasabii Ng
‘The dynamic relationship between humans and living artefacts will continue to evolve reciprocally with mutual care.’
Elvin Karana
‘In my work the concept of time is a recurring theme.’
Xandra van der Eijk
‘Bacteria, Fungi, Humans, all part of the same experiment.’
Ward Groutars
‘The pleasure of working in the [MI] lab is that microbiological research is carried out from two different approaches.’
John van der Werf
‘Digital media help me to envision future interactions with living materials’
Jose Martinez Castro
‘I believe a collaborative and efficient lab can address both educational and research demands.’
Serena Buscone
‘Nature is a perfect example of an iterative design process. It is inspiring and full of exciting solutions.’
Clarice Risseeuw