LORENA TREBBI

PhD Graduate

PhD program:: XXXIII



Thesis title: Evolving Matter: the future of materials and design in the biofabrication era

Human Evolution – from Stone Age to Silicon Age – has always been connected to the prevailing material of each era. With biofabrication the matter of the project becomes alive changing our material world, the figure and role of designers – who learn to interact with nature as co-workers – and their relationship with processes and industry. Analysing emergent phenomena and trends we can outline a projection of how a pos- sible future could be if we prove to be able to grasp and amplify them, as well as of what could happen if we keep on ignoring them. The research questions how design places itself in the transdisciplinary field of biofabrication, how far its range expands and which are indeed its limits, with the aim of understanding to what extent biofabrication is transforming designers’ approach, activity, scope and cultural framework. Furthermore, it questions which is the specific contribution of design in fostering the application, appreciation and consequent diffusion of biofabricated materials within a timeframe appropriate to the urgencies of the contemporary world. This means to bypass the long lead times characterising the industrial development of new materials, to make them rapidly and easily available through everyday objects, thus playing an active part in such design driven material revolution. After tracing the theoretical framework, the research proceeded with a hands-on experimentation carried out in two stages: the basic experiments useful to gain an understanding of different materials and processes in the biodesign field, learn how to interact with organic and living matter, and develop a methodology which suits the hybrid dimension between design and biology; the fermentation experiments where the proposed methodology is applied to one specific material with an in-depth experimentation on microbial nanocellulose. The fermented material is explored shifting from the micro to the macro scale: from process to material, from product to system. Design approaches biofabrication acting on multiple scales thanks to its envisioning ability: it can intervene on material properties as vehicle for sensations, emotions and meanings, develop application scenarios able to valorise and communicate such properties, but also new production-consumption systems which take into account the systemic inter- connection each material and product has with environment and society. Biofabrication is giving us the chance to act a radical change of frame and rethink the way we produce and consume, and more generally the way we live and relate to the Earth habitat through our behaviours – strongly entangled with and influenced by materials, resources and processes we use. We have the responsibility, and opportunity, to shift from a parasitic to a mutualistic attitude as a species, move from the linear mechanistic idea of progress and incremental growth – based on consumption and exploitation – to the rhizomatic organicistic idea of evolution – based on use and collaboration –, discarding the twentieth-century anthropocentric mindset and establishing a symbiotic co-existence among all planetary systems.

Research products

11573/1704380 - 2024 - Caress the pharaoh. The tactile reproduction of Ramses II's “mummy” in the Sapienza University Museum of the Near East, Egypt and Mediterranean
Nigro, Lorenzo; Montanari, Daria; Sabatini, Sharon; De Giuseppe, Martina; Benedettucci, Francesco M.; Lucibello, Sabrina; Fattore, Luciano; Trebbi, Lorena; Nejat, Behnoosh; Rinaldi, Teresa - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: JOURNAL OF CULTURAL HERITAGE (Paris: Elsevier, cop. 1999-) pp. 158-163 - issn: 1296-2074 - wos: WOS:001201863900001 (0) - scopus: (0)

11573/1706992 - 2024 - Evolving Matter. The future of materials and design in the biofabrication era
Trebbi, Lorena - 03a Saggio, Trattato Scientifico

11573/1676097 - 2022 - Alginate Materials for Circular Fashion: from Consumptive to Regenerative Systems
Lucibello, Sabrina; Trebbi, Lorena - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: BEYOND ALL LIMITS International Conference on Sustainability in Architecture, Planning, and Design (Caserta)
book: BEYOND ALL LIMITS - (9788885556232)

11573/1651781 - 2022 - Brand Design Strategy for Public Administration. An experimentation on Lazio Region’s Employment Centers in Italy
Martino, Carlo; Ricci, Laura; Lucibello, Sabrina; Fornari, Davide; Maselli, Vincenzo; Trebbi, Lorena; Caccamo, Alessio; Cosentino, Silvia; Belluzzi Mus, Carlotta; Canepone, Eugenia Maria - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: AHFE (2022) International Conference (New York, USA)
book: Ergonomics In Design - (978-1-958651-23-0)

11573/1654028 - 2022 - S(co)bYio design. Sistema circolare e zero-waste per la biofabbricazione di nanocellulosa microbica da scarti alimentari
Trebbi, Lorena - 02a Capitolo o Articolo
book: Design per Connettere. Persone, patrimoni, processi - (978-88-943380-0-3)

11573/1652543 - 2022 - Hybrid Sensory Surfaces. Biological meets Digital
Trebbi, Lorena; Del Gesso, Chiara - 02a Capitolo o Articolo
book: Intelligent Human Systems Integration (IHSI 2022): Integrating People and Intelligent Systems - (978-1-7923-8988-7)

11573/1324718 - 2021 - Re-thinking the relationship between design and materials as a dynamic socio-technological innovation process: a didactic case history
Lucibello, Sabrina; Trebbi, Lorena - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: CUADERNOS DEL CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS EN DISEÑO Y COMUNICACIÓN. ENSAYOS (Buenos Aires: Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación, Facultad de Diseño y Comunicación, Universidad de Palermo) pp. 109-120 - issn: 1853-3523 - wos: (0) - scopus: (0)

11573/1600357 - 2021 - MATERIAL INTERFACES. Biological meets digital
Lucibello, Sabrina; Trebbi, Lorena; Del Gesso, Chiara - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: AGATHÓN (Palermo: Palermo university press Palermo : [s. n.]) pp. 180-185 - issn: 2464-9309 - wos: (0) - scopus: (0)

11573/1585474 - 2021 - Evolving matter: Nuovi approcci progettuali nell’era della biofabbricazione
Trebbi, Lorena - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: FRID2019 – Confini e Contesti. La doppia prospettiva della ricerca in design. Forum nazionale dei dottorati di ricerca in design (Venezia)
book: FRID 2019. La doppia prospettiva della ricerca in design. - (9788831241380)

11573/1493562 - 2020 - Material as storyteller. Hybrid ways between the local heritage and the global perspective
Del Gesso, Chiara; Rotondi, Carmen; Trebbi, Lorena - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: UNIDCOM 10th International Conference (Lisbona, Portugal)
book: Senses & sensibility 2019. Lost in (G)Localization - (978-989-54829-3-1)

11573/1416838 - 2020 - Progettare l'evoluzione
Del Gesso, Chiara; Trebbi, Lorena - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: DIID. DISEGNO INDUSTRIALE INDUSTRIAL DESIGN (Roma: Rdesignpress Roma: Gangemi Editore) pp. 136-143 - issn: 1594-8528 - wos: (0) - scopus: (0)

11573/1493547 - 2020 - Identity, food and culture: “Taste without waste”
Lucibello, Sabrina; Del Gesso, Chiara; Rotondi, Carmen; Trebbi, Lorena - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: UNIDCOM 10th International Conference (Lisbona, Portugal)
book: Senses & sensibility 2019. Lost in (G)Localization - (978-989-54829-3-1)

11573/1645448 - 2020 - Pharmacy of the Future: from Medication to Patient
Trebbi, Lorena - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: Design 4 Health - 6th International Conference (Amsterdam, NL)
book: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Design4Health Amsterdam 2020 - (978-1-8381117-0-0)

11573/1501310 - 2020 - Simbiosi materiche. Progettare la material experience attraverso l’interazione tra processi tecnologici ed autopoiesi
Trebbi, Lorena; Del Gesso, Chiara - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: 100 anni dal Bauhaus. Le prospettive della ricerca di design. Assemblea Annuale della Società Italiana di Design (Ascoli Piceno; Italia)
book: 100 anni dal Bauhaus. Le prospettive della ricerca di design - (9788-89-43380-2-7)

11573/1337536 - 2019 - Craft Pharmacy
Belluzzi Mus, Carlotta; Del Gesso, Chiara; Denaro, Gianni; Trebbi, Lorena - 02a Capitolo o Articolo
book: Inspiring The Future Pharmacy - (978 88 99836 32 0)

11573/1329619 - 2018 - Innovation in design through materials: the Project-based Learning (PbL) Method
Del Curto, Barbara; Lucibello, Sabrina; Trebbi, Lorena - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: INTED2018 12th annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference (Valencia (Spain))
book: INTED2018: 12th annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference - ()

11573/1337381 - 2018 - Il project-based-learning (PBL) method
Lucibello, Sabrina; Trebbi, Lorena - 02a Capitolo o Articolo
book: Esperimenti di Design. Ricerca e innovazione con e dei materiali - (9788899854089)

11573/1337387 - 2018 - Re-think through and for the senses. Growing design and design with materials
Trebbi, Lorena - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: DIID. DISEGNO INDUSTRIALE INDUSTRIAL DESIGN (Roma: Rdesignpress Roma: Gangemi Editore) pp. 86-93 - issn: 1594-8528 - wos: (0) - scopus: (0)

© Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" - Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma