Meri Zirkelbach

Meri Zirkelbach serves as an Associate Lecturer at the Institute of Architecture (IAR) within the School of Engineering and Architecture at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), where she mentors students in the Bachelor of Digital Construction program with focus on materialization and scenographic implementation of digital prototypes.

Her academic credentials include:

• Diploma in Conservation / Restoration (2007), Bern University of the Arts
• Diploma in Surface Design (2014), Swiss Textile School, Zurich
• Master of Arts in Design (2019), Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts

Zirkelbach's research integrates material science with sustainable design innovation, emphasizing material-driven processes and the aesthetics of materialization. Her work bridges conservation, surface design, and speculative material explorations—particularly in wood and concrete composites—through human-centered methodologies that connect theoretical research with practical manufacturing applications.

She received the Zeugin Design Foundation Prize (2019) for her ETH Zurich-collaborated master's thesis "White Wood" and currently advances this research in doctoral studies at Offenbach University's Institute for Material Design (IMD) and Empa Dübendorf.

As an educator, Zirkelbach has supervised Master of Design students at HSLU and now mentors bachelor students. Her parallel operation of a concrete manufactory—producing both client commissions and original designs—creates dynamic synergy between industrial practice and academic inquiry, informing her teaching on sustainable transformation processes.