Biography
Meri Zirkelbach is a graduate Cons. / Rest. (2007), dipl. designer surface (2014) and designer M.A. (2019). She studied Conservation / Restoration in the field of paintings and sculpture at the Bern University of the Arts and worked in the profession with her own studio in Switzerland and Finland. In 2012, she began her further education as a designer of surfaces at the Swiss Textile School, Zurich and completed her diploma after two years. She then began a Bachelor's degree in Object Design at the Lucerne School of Design & Art and successfully completed her Master's degree in Design in 2019. In parallel, she runs a concrete manufactory where she realises customer orders and products. Her focus is on the materialisation of diverse applications with a material-driven approach.
Since autumn 2019, Meri Zirkelbach has been working for the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts as a research assistant and in supervising or teaching students in the Master Design. Her research focuses on the collaboration of design and science and the development of new sustainable material concepts.
Her master's thesis "White Wood" in collaboration with ETH Zurich was awarded the Zeugin Design Foundation Prize in 2019. Currently, she is extending her master's thesis in the context of a PhD. The PhD thesis focuses on diverse and speculative material explorations and is being developed with the Institute of Material Design (IMD) at the Offenbach University of Applied Sciences and Empa Dübendorf.
