The NYU Shanghai Center for EcoMateriality creatively bridges the gaps between Art, Design and Science. It is at the forefront of art- and design-based material and aesthetic re-thinking in the paired frameworks of environmental responsibility and artistic innovation. It is a lab where interdisciplinary research, artistic practice, and conversation intersect to propose a future that is fully centered around circular design principles – reuse, recycle, renew & rethink – in order to build a sustainable global system of material making. 

The center currently houses the NYU Shanghai Re-Makerspace and NYU Shanghai Natural Materials Studio. We host discourses around intersections between nature, science, technology, and culture. We are committed to an active outreach program, which includes talks, workshops, and community projects. Our research is accessible as open source content, available to both our community and the general public in order to enhance people’s relationship with materials and artifacts and encourage radical change.

 We are a collaborative, Eco Feminist research cluster opening up new territories for material, art, and design – a non-hierarchical and inclusive site for research,  invention, and artistic development. The center models a sustainable, sympoietic paradigm through multi-pronged experimentations into bio-materials, transformation of man-made refuse, cutting-edge emerging technologies, and critical making.