Filiz Klassen

Filiz is the Founder and an Academic Advisor to the Design Fabrication Zone and a Professor at Ryerson University, School of Interior Design.

Her research emphasizes materiality as ‘responsive matter’ in architecture and interiors and focuses on adaptability to variables in environmental conditions. She is recipient of a research/creation grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for her project Malleable Matter: Material Innovations in Architecture (2005-2010). Her ‘Snow, Rain, Light, Wind: Weathering Architecture’ exhibition is displayed at Triangle Gallery, Calgary (May 28-June 24, 2010) and Design at Riverside Gallery, Cambridge (November 2009 to January 2010).

She has presented at conferences internationally in Boras, Singapore, London, New York, Istanbul, Eindhoven, Delft, Venice and nationally in Banff, Calgary, Cambridge and Toronto. Her articles on material innovations and responsive environments are published in books Snow, Rain, Light, Wind: Weathering Architecture (2009), Arium: Weather + Architecture (Hatje Cantz, 2010) and Mobile Nation (Riverside Press, 2008), as well as in other academic and professional journals. She is the co-editor of Transportable Environments 3, the third book on portable architecture and design published by Spon Press (UK, 2006) following the international conference she organized and co-chaired at Ryerson.

She has curated exhibitions and also exhibited her work at Archive Gallery, Gladstone Hotel, Design Exchange, and various other venues in Toronto. She directed ‘Weathering Architecture’, a performance that was staged as part of Harbourfront Centre’s HATCH: Emerging Performance Projects in 2008. For more information on her work and publications please see www.filiz-klassen.com (external link)  and  https://www.torontomu.ca/malleablematter.