‘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 graduated in Industrial Design from Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey, in 2015, where she subsequently joined the Master of Science Programme in the same department at METU. During her exchange at TU Delft’s Design for Interaction Master’s Programme, she gained experience in the positive design field and material-driven design through her research and design internship in Delft Institute of Positive Design.
In 2017, Hazal started working with Prof. Pieter Desmet at TU Delft on her graduation project, which focuses on changing time perception of people who suffer from chronic time pressure, and looks at ways to improve their subjective wellbeing. In the last phase of the study, she collaborated with Materials Experience Lab in order to design a biomaterial, which changes through time, with the advisory of Assoc. Prof. Elvin Karana. During this project, she explored the creation of meaning through materials and focused on the way materials make us think, feel, and act (i.e. materials experience) through their unique temporal qualities (e.g. how they dissolve over time). Her research on novel opportunities biomaterials hold for the design of products, which present the rewards passing of time, constituted a first step for her PhD research subject. Now, her project aims to explore the ‘living material’ experiences.
Living Material Experiences: Facilitating Experiential Understanding of Living Materials in Material Driven Design
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.
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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‘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
‘It is through the “not-knowing” that a stimulating and caring environment can be created to confidently share vulnerability.’
Risk Hazekamp
‘Bacteria, Fungi, Humans, all part of the same experiment.’
Ward Groutars
‘I am dust! People were created from the same particles as all other elements. Everything was created from dust and will return to dust. ’
Annemarie Piscaer
‘I’m interested in how we can implement situated learning within design education.’
Sarah Lugthart
‘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
‘Exploring and integrating novel perspectives to our everyday through the eyes of fungi.’
Wasabii Ng
‘Nature is a perfect example of an iterative design process. It is inspiring and full of exciting solutions.’
Clarice Risseeuw