Michael Ulrich Hensel

Michael Ulrich Hensel (b.1965) is an innovative German-born architect, researcher, educator and writer. Concerned with "performance-oriented design", Hensel deals with theoretical and experimental research into the making of the built environment. ^[1]

Early life

Hensel was born in Celle, Germany in 1965. He gained his diploma in architecture from Cologne University of Applied Sciences in 1992 and his graduate diploma from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London in 1993.

Career

His research interests and efforts include formulating the theoretical and methodological framework for "Performance-oriented Architecture" and developing a biological paradigm for design and sustainability of the built environment.^[2]

Hensel taught at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London (1993 to 2009), where he co-directed the Emergent Technologies and Design Program (EmTech) and developed the curriculum for the EmTech Studio (2001 to 2009).^[3] In this context he directed the design and construction of experimental projects in an environmentally sensitive site in Chilean Patagonia.

He has held visiting professorships and innovation fellowships and has taught and lectured in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia. Hensel is currently Professor for Architecture at AHO, the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Oslo, Norway, where he collaborates with Prof. Dr. Birger Ragnvald Sevaldson. Since 2011 he is director of the Research Centre for Architecture and Tectonics at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.

He is a founding member of OCEAN, founded in 1994, and founding chairman of the OCEAN Design Research Association founded in 2008. ^[4] Since 2007 he has been a board member of BIONIS, the Biomimetics Network for Industrial Sustainability and editorial board member of AD Wiley.

Writings

His books include Emergent Technologies and Design - Towards a Biological Paradigm for Architecture published in London by Routledge in 2010, co-authored with A. Menges. and M. Weinstock. Hensel and Verebes wrote Urbanisations published in 1999 in London in Serial Books' Architecture and Urbanism 3.

Among his many works in editing books and journals, he has been involved in contributions published in Germany, London, and Iran, covering heterogeneous space, morpho-ecological and morphogenetic design for ecologically sensitive spaces, versatility in architectural as well as technologies and strategies involved.

Likewise his articles, essays and papers examine the possibilities and variations of "membrane" or "permeable" spaces and nomadic architecture as well as "nested capacities", interactive spaces and "biologies" as applied to architectural design.

Personal life

Hensel's wife and one of his collaborators is Turkish-born progressive architect and researcher Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel.

References

1. ^ Hensel M. (2010). 'Performance-oriented Design - Towards a Biological Paradigm for Architectural Design and the Built Environment'. Formakademisk. Online Journal. http://www.formakademisk.org/index.php/formakademisk/issue/view/6/showToc
2. ^ http://www.performanceorienteddesign.net
3. ^ Hensel, M., Menges, A. and Weinstock, M. (2010). Emergent Technologies and Design - Towards a Biological Paradigm for Architecture. London: Routledge.
4. ^ http://www.ocean-designresearch.net

External links

• http://www.ocean-designresearch.net
• http://www.performanceorienteddesign.net
• http://www.membranespaces.net
• http://www.aho.no
• http://www.extra.rdg.ac.uk/eng/BIONIS/

Persondata
Name	Hensel, Michael Ulrich
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1965
Place of birth	Celle / Westercelle, Germany
Date of death
Place of death