With her research project, ‘Fingerlings’, Laura van Santen wants her students to focus on what matter and materiality allow for both in the shaping and in the understanding of structures. Students are invited to engage in experimentation with microstructures by producing samples, documenting recipes, making triaxial tests, and forming collections in a library. Specifically, she is creating an archive of finger exercises that help students to gain expertise in working with particular materials.
Laura van Santen is an architect (graduated from TU Delft) and collaborates with Diederik de Koning as la-di-da. The design duo combines knowledge of industrial building processes with a love for craft, oscillating between furniture and architecture. Recently Laura has worked on large-scale, ceramic panels during a residency at the European Ceramic Work Centre, and developed the design for 4000m2 of movable walls in the LocHal Library at the Textiellab Tilburg. Laura has collaborated intensely with Petra Blaisse and Malkit Shoshan on different interiors and exhibitions, amongst which the installations in the Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012 and 2016. Her work has been published in Volume, Domus, Clog and San Rocco.