Barbara Imhof Editor

BARBARA IMHOF is the editor, project lead and an architect at LIQUIFER Systems Group, Vienna, Austria. Barbara Imhof has a background in architecture, having studied at the Vienna University of Technology VUT, Bartlett School UCL, London, and graduated from the Angewandte (Academy of Applied Arts Studio Wolf D. Prix). She additionally holds a Master of Science from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France and a PhD in space architecture from VUT. She taught at the VUT (assistant professor 8 years), the ETH Zurich and Chalmers University in Gothenburg, among others. Her background combines artistic training with scientific education. She has lived in various places in Europe and the U.S.A. where she is integrated in large networks. She founded LIQUIFER Systems Group, a platform of experts from different backgrounds (engineering, science, architecture, design) collaborating on R&D projects. She has led some of these research projects, e.g. "ISS-Sleep-Kit - Design for a sleeping bag for astronauts" and "RAMA - Rover for Advanced Mission Applications". Barbara Imhof also runs her own broadcast in the cultural section of Radio Orange 94.0. Recently, she received the Polar Star Award from the Austrian Space Forum for outreach activities in 2011 and the FEM-Tech award for research and technology in 2012. PETRA GRUBER is the editor, co-project lead and an architect at transarch, Vienna, Austria. Petra Gruber completed her PhD in Biomimetics in Architecture in 2008. She has extensive experience in carrying out biomimetic design projects, was a research fellow at the Centre for Biomimetics at the University of Reading, UK in 2007. She has taught as a guest professor at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, and was Assistant Professor at the Department for Design and Building Construction at the Vienna University of Technology for eight years, where she set up the TU Bionik Center of Excellence. Petra Gruber is currently working on biomimetics and trans-discplinary projects with her own company transarch, in collaboration with an international network of scientists. She teaches Biomimetics in Energy Systems at the University of Applied Sciences in Villach, Austria, at the Department for History of Architecture and Building Archaeology at the VUT and also holds lectures and workshops internationally. She published the book "Biomimetics in Architecture: Architecture of Life and Buildings" in 2011.