27 students from the University of Stuttgart visited the livMatS cluster as part of the master seminar "Architectural Biomimetics". The excursion was part of a two-day teaching program in the seminar in which livMatS is participating. The seminar is offered as part of the interdisciplinary and research-oriented master's program "Integrative Technologies and Architectural Design Research" (ITECH) at the University of Stuttgart, which deals with contemporary aspects of the built environment and practice. The participation of livMatS in the seminar is based on a long-term cooperation between researchers at the Universities of Stuttgart and Freiburg in the field of bioinspired architecture.
The seminar "Architectural Biomimetics" focuses on the research and abstraction of biological strategies and their transfer into technical applications. Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck introduced the students to the livMatS Pavilion in the Botanic Garden of the University of Freiburg and the livMatS Biomimetic Shell @FIT, which was built in cooperation with the Stuttgart Cluster of Excellence IntCDC. The students also received an introductory lecture on biomimetics and bio-inspired material systems and got to know the Biomimetic Trail in the Botanic Garden and the cluster's shared laboratories.
During the second excursion to Freiburg, the students will see further examples of the material systems and demonstrators developed as part of livMatS research, particularly in the areas of soft machines and soft robotics as well as self-repairing and highly damping material systems.