Director of D.DLab
Shany Barath is an architect and the founder of Disrupt.Design Lab (D.DLab) at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion. Her research explores how the convergence of material systems, advanced manufacturing technologies, and computational design enables the imagining, informing, and prototyping of new workflows for architecture that promote resource-efficient, context-responsive, and inclusive built environments. Rooted in interdisciplinary inquiry, she positions design-led research as a crucial means for generating and integrating knowledge within architectural practice.
Transitioning from practice to academia, her background is distinct from the typical academic. She earned her M.Sc. in Architecture from TU Delft and joined the landscape-architecture office West8, where she focused on the relationship between urbanization, biodiversity, and climate resilience. An M.Arch at the Architectural Association Design Research Lab (AADRL) deepened this direction through the study of computational and fabrication methodologies. Over nearly a decade at the Architectural Association, she served as Studio Master (Senior Lecturer) and Program Head, while simultaneously working at the architectural practice UNStudio, developing interdisciplinary, planet-centered research initiatives. These experiences culminated in the co-founding of ShaGa Architects, where experimental computational and fabrication strategies were applied to real-world design challenges.
Upon joining the Technion, and once immersed in the Technion campus, she was captivated by the significant potential for impactful scientific contributions and collaborations through design-led interdisciplinary research, and founded D.DLab as a community for enabling designers to actively participate in formulating new directions for the built environment.
Under her direction, Shany and the lab have won significant international and national awards, including the Goldberg Research Fund for outstanding research contributing to local industry, the Climate Solution Prize for Breakthrough Research on the CyanoCementation project, the International Design Educates Award Gold Prize, and Emerging Designer Award on the WoodenWood research. In Milan Design Week 2023, the robotic non-planar wooden printed stools were among the 12 projects annually selected in the Fuorisalone Award Sustainability category out of over a thousand entries. Additional selections in influential design platforms include the Dezeen Award selection of 15 projects in the Sustainability Material Innovation category, and Frame magazine selection of 8 exemplary designs of sustainable materials that are transforming seating production. Her work has been widely published as visionary and forward-thinking, singling her out as “paving the way to the future we want”.
