Prof. Aart van Bezooijen

Aart van Bezooijen is a Dutch industrial designer with an obsession for materials. As a designer–researcher he explores how a new relationship with materials and making can help us (re)think, create and contribute to a more sustainable future. His approach is hands-on, experimental, collaborative and interdisciplinary.

From 2012-2020 he established and managed a materials collection for teaching and research at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design (Germany), documented in the publication “Hands-on Materials Education”. Since 2021 he works as Professor of Material Driven Design at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Italy).

In South Tyrol he is a board member of the Competence Centre for Sustainability, the BITZ unibz fablab in Bolzano and supports the award-winning reuse initiative REX Material und Dinge / materiali e cose in Bressanone. He is also involved in eco-social design projects as part of the New European Bauhaus of the Mountains initiative.

Material Stories is the focus of his collaborative work with Paula Raché, between joint exhibitions, publications and interdisciplinary workshops. The publication “It’s Not Easy Being Green – Two Designers Exploring Sustainability Worldwide”, documents one of their self-initiated research journeys.