2023 Graduate Group Member Materials Science & Engineering
2023 Johnson&Johnson Woman in STEM2D Scholar
2022 Director DumoLab Research Weitzman School of Design
2021 Assistant Professor of Graduate Architecture
2021 Graduate Group Member Architectural Technology
2021 Faculty Fellow at Lauder College House CHAS
Education
Ph.D. IDOC, Tufts University, Biomedical Engineering, The Silklab
MSc., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Lab, Mediated Matter Group
MSc., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Architecture, Design Computation Group
MArch & BArch., Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Escola Tecnica Superior d’Arquitectura
Laia Mogas-Soldevila is the Director at DumoLab Research (DLR) and Graduate Architecture faculty at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania. She holds an interdisciplinary PhD in biomedical engineering and pioneers the field of biomaterial architectures by integrating life science practices into bio-fabricated material systems for design. Her laboratory develops water-based design and fabrication methods for responsive and regenerative building systems and everyday objects. Her work, awarded by the Johnson&Johnson Foundation, is recognized in global exhibitions as well as scientific journals, and influencing academic leadership across sustainable manufacturing, bio-based architecture, and biogenic materials innovation.
Full Bio
Laia Mogas-Soldevila is a licensed Architect, the Director at DumoLab Research (DLR), and Graduate Architecture Faculty at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania. She pioneers the field of biomaterial architectures by integrating life science practices into bio-fabricated material systems for design.
Her pedagogy supports material-driven critical design thinking, and translation of novel theory and inquiry into applied methods for biomaterials and bio-based fabrication in product design and architecture. Over the past ten years while teaching at UPC BarcelonaTech, MIT, Cornell, and Penn, Laia has built scholarship reconsidering matter as a fundamental design driver and partnering with scientists to redesign it towards unprecedented environmental capabilities. She specializes in devising architectural bio-composite applications from protein and polysaccharide binders, natural fibers and aggregates, and living construction methods. Her DumoLab at Penn develops bricks, furniture, partitions, exterior walls, canopies, arches and domes able to replace unsustainable material families, re-valorize waste, bio-remediate problematic air and soil, or detect, display, and correct chemical changes in human habitats.
Dr Mogas-Soldevila has received the prestigious Johnson&Johnson Foundation Woman in STEM2D Scholar Award as well as grants by Penn's University Research Foundation (URF), Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, the Penn Environmental Innovations Initiative, (EII), the Sachs Program for Art Innovation, and the Penn Global Engagement Fund. Her work has been shown at the Milan's and London's Design Weeks in 2023 with industrial partners, SF MoMA in 2022, NYC MoMA in 2023-2026 for BioDesignChallenge, the New Lab in Brooklyn for Biofabricate, the ICA Philadelphia for ACADIA 2023, the Athens Opera House during Nostos Festival 2021, at the Barcelona D-HUB Museum for DesignDoes 2020, at CCA Novack Gallery in 2025 for their Autodesk Technology Center Alliance Pioneering Biomaterials Symposium and Exhibit, , and at the Venice Biennale Arsenale for VAMO in 2025, and is part of the permanent collection of the UC Boulder Museum of Art.
On top of being a licensed architect by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia School of Architecture (UPC-ETSAV) with a minor in fine arts by the École Nationale Supérieure de Beaux-Arts in Paris (ENSBA), she holds an interdisciplinary doctorate bridging biomaterials science, biomedical engineering, and advanced design from Tufts University's School of Engineering (BME) developed at The Silklab, and two MS degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Planning within the DesComp and MediatedMatter groups (MIT SA+P).
