A body holds a body

Geo–Design MA
Thesis Publication
Design Academy Eindhoven Netherlands
2026

A Body Holds A Body Holds A Body brings together sixteen Geo–Design theses exploring living systems under pressure. Across ecological, political, and institutional contexts, the publication traces what is lost when complex relations are abstracted into resources, units, or baselines.

Across our sixteen graduation projects, which will be presented at this year’s Graduation Show, we explore a wide range of subjects, from bacteria, birds, plants, minerals, and radioactive isotopes to seeds, oysters, ash, tidal landscapes, ruins, intergenerational memory, darkness, simulations, and gravitational waves. While our approaches, research contexts, and visual outcomes are quite different, we share an interest in the ecological, political, and institutional systems that shape how we understand and relate to the world around us.

Find more infos: here

Lamelle

Three-dimensional tile
Golem Baukeramik, Germany
Ceramic
2023

Lamelle was developed during an internship at Golem Kunst- & Baukeramik, a manufactory
specialising in traditional and historical tile production. The project emerged from an interest
in approaching craft through making: working directly with the material and production process
in order to better understand the knowledge, precision, and techniques embedded within
ceramic manufacturing.

Developed with the support and expertise of craftspeople from Golem’s mould-making department, Lamelle takes the form of a three
dimensional ceramic tile that can be stacked in different configurations. Each tile contains a curved inner geometry, so that when several
elements are placed on top of one another, they create a continuous cylindrical cavity. Through this transformation, the architectural
tile becomes a functional vessel.

The project therefore moves between tile, modular object, and vase, exploring how a component associated with architectural
surfaces can gain a different function through repetition and assembly.

Rather than reproducing historical forms, Lamelle uses traditional ceramic knowledge as a starting point for a contemporary object.
The project reflects an interest in craft not only as a means of production, but as a form of situated knowledge that can be learned
through close engagement with materials, tools, and the people who work with them.

Digitile in Detail

Laser-engraved ceramic tile
CNC laser engraving
Ceramic
2022 - 2023

The project explores how the boundaries between
traditional craft, industrial production, and digital
fabrication are shifting as new tools enter established processes of making. Rather than treating analogue and digital methods as opposites, it asks how they
can operate together and what new forms of knowledge, control, and expression can emerge through their combination.

Ceramic tiles became a testing ground for this approach. Pixel-based floral motifs, referencing
traditional decorative patterns, were translated into digital files and engraved into the ceramic surface
using a CNC laser. Through a series of material tests, different parameters such as laser power,
speed, and repeated passes were adjusted to examine how they affected depth, detail, texture,
and the behaviour of the glazed surface.

The process brought together techniques associated with handmade tile production, industrial manufacturing, and digital fabrication. The final
ceramic pieces therefore become less a demonstration of one specific technology than a record of several modes of production interacting
within the same object.

Although the project is realised through ceramics, its focus extends beyond a single material. It considers digital technologies as tools that can enter into dialogue with existing craft knowledge
rather than simply automate or replace it. In this sense, the project asks how contemporary technologies might expand craft practices while maintaining an attention to material behaviour, experimentation, and the situated
knowledge of making.

Hier (hin) ? (here?)

Performative dining installation
Discarded materials
Collective workshop
2022

Walking is most enjoyable when it becomes a shared experience, with conversations, shared food and spontaneous encounters.

During a performative walk, 22 people carried together an infrastructure normally associated
with settledness, order and fixed places: an eight-metre-long table, four four-metre-long benches, a four-metre-long basket full of food
and three two-metre-long loaves of bread.

These objects were not simple luggage, but became a catalyst for a social choreography. Their size and weight required close coordination
and collective responsibility. Walking was only possible if everyone carried along.

The place to stop, the moment to rest, was not determined in advance, but decided together. At some point, the group decided to set up the
table and benches and eat together. This improvised situation created a temporary social space, a place that was created through joint action and decisions and not through architecture or planning. After the communal meal, everything was dismantled and taken back to the starting point.

‘Hier(hin)’ poses fundamental questions about the understanding of the public sphere and participation. Those who carry, co-decide. Those who co-decide design the space. The performative character of the work makes processes visible that often go unnoticed in everyday life, such as the extent to which collective
action is dependent on agreements, consideration and timing. At the same time, the project refers to
topics such as care, common property and mobility. What possibilities arise when places are not predetermined but collectively negotiated?