Julia lohmann biography

Julia Lohmann (born 1977, Germany) is a.
Julia Lohmann (born 1977, Germany) is a multidisciplinary designer, educator and researcher living and working in Helsinki, Finland.
Julia Lohmann is a Professor of Practice in Contemporary Design.

•

Available Works

Julia Lohmann is a designer based between London and Hamburg. She is inspired by the world that lies outside of established design disciplines, notably unusual and undervalued materials both natural and manmade. Lohmann realizes projects that lie on the threshold between design, science and art which explore our attitudes toward the world that sustains us.

Her objects and installations are exhibited worldwide and are part of major private and public collections, including the MoMA (New York), and the Design Museum (London) to name but a couple.

Lohmann holds degrees in both product and graphic design, and is a professor of design at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. She also teaches on the MA Design Products course at the Royal College of Art where she is involved in an AHRC funded, practice-based PhD studentship in collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum.

In 2013 during her time as designer in residence at the Victoria & Albert museum Lohmann established ‘The Department of Seaweed’. The studio carried out research on the use of kelp as

•

Julia Lohmann

PhD, Professor of Practice

Julia Lohmann is a Professor of Practice in Contemporary Design. She investigates and critiques the ethical and material value systems underpinning our relationship with flora and fauna. Julia's research interests include critical practice and transition-design, bio materials, collaborative making, museums and residencies, embodied cognition and practice as research. As designer in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2013, she established the Department of Seaweed, an interdisciplinary community of practice exploring the marine plant's potential as a design material. She holds a PhD in Innovation Design Engineering from the Royal College of Art, London.

julialohmann.co.uk

Luis Vega

•

Through her discipline-blurring practice, the German-born, Helsinki-based designer Julia Lohmann explores the intersection of ethics, sustainability, and our connection to the natural world. After graduating in Design Products from London’s Royal College of Art in 2004, her early work critically examined the use of animal materials, questioning how we transform animals into objects and the ethical implications of that process. Lohmann’s ongoing fascination with the alienation between humans and nature, and ways in which we can overcome it, has remained a central theme throughout her career.

A pivotal moment came during a visit to Japan, where Lohmann encountered seaweed and recognised its potential as a sustainable material—likening its versatility to leather but without the ethical complexities of animal death. Delving deeper, she discovered seaweed’s ecological benefits and in 2013 set up The Department of Seaweed, a platform for interdisciplinary research and experimentation with the material.

(Image credit: Julia Lohmann)

Since moving to Helsinki i