Sonja Bäumel’s (In)visible Membrane is about life on the human body and its design applications. It seeks to find a balance between individual identity and the surrounding local environment, exploring how the bacteria on human skin can be employed to make clothing that adapts to the environment. Bäumel wants to use the bacteria on the human skin to transform it into a visible, functional and flexible membrane that could serve as a new type of clothing. This has the potential to change the way we adapt to the environment while also having potential health benefits.

CV: Bäumel is a Design Academy Eindhoven graduate who moves between Brussels, Vienna and Amsterdam. She continues to work on the applications of her (In)visible Membrane project.

Read "To form or multiply", an investigation into what design can contribute to synthetic biology, written by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg.