BREATHING ARCHITECTURE II
Breathing Architecture explores the anatomy of air, modelling its flows within the intricate and beautiful structures of human respiration. The project merges art and science to advance the study of human anatomy, connecting designer Filippo Nassetti with researchers at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center through the S+T+ARTS AIR Residencies program.
Breathing Architecture began with the idea that a designer’s perspective can help solve challenges in simulating complex biological systems. While scientists use equations and mechanical physics, a designer may see the body as a spatial architecture—structures to navigate through high resolution simulations, revealing their beauty and complexity. This fusion of analytical thinking and visual imagination reinterprets a centuries-old tradition of artistic anatomical representation through contemporary technologies.
Using High Performance Computing, the collaboration resulted in a novel procedural method for simulating airflow in alveolar tissue—regions too fine to be captured by existing scanning technologies. This innovation supports ongoing biomedical research, including disease modelling for tuberculosis.
The same datasets were materialised into sculptural forms, giving physical presence to the dynamics of breath. In these works, beauty and aesthetics are not incidental; they serve as measures of order, enhancing perception, recognition, and memory. The project explores the role of artists in scientific inquiry, while treating scientific data as artistic material.
Ultimately, the pieces explores the architecture of air within human anatomy, its algorithmic simulation, and materialisation into physical form, proposing a spatial and aesthetic interpretation of biology, where high-resolution simulations become both analytical tools and poetic structures.
Breathing Architecture began with the idea that a designer’s perspective can help solve challenges in simulating complex biological systems. While scientists use equations and mechanical physics, a designer may see the body as a spatial architecture—structures to navigate through high resolution simulations, revealing their beauty and complexity. This fusion of analytical thinking and visual imagination reinterprets a centuries-old tradition of artistic anatomical representation through contemporary technologies.
Using High Performance Computing, the collaboration resulted in a novel procedural method for simulating airflow in alveolar tissue—regions too fine to be captured by existing scanning technologies. This innovation supports ongoing biomedical research, including disease modelling for tuberculosis.
The same datasets were materialised into sculptural forms, giving physical presence to the dynamics of breath. In these works, beauty and aesthetics are not incidental; they serve as measures of order, enhancing perception, recognition, and memory. The project explores the role of artists in scientific inquiry, while treating scientific data as artistic material.
Ultimately, the pieces explores the architecture of air within human anatomy, its algorithmic simulation, and materialisation into physical form, proposing a spatial and aesthetic interpretation of biology, where high-resolution simulations become both analytical tools and poetic structures.
Breathing Architecture was part of “S+T+ARTS AIR – Artistic Innovation for European Resilience”, funded by the European Union from call CNECT/2022/3482066 – Art and the digital: Unleashing creativity for European industry, regions, and society under grant agreement LC-01984767.
FILIPPO NASSETTI LTD (UK)Artist and Designer: Filippo Nassetti
BARCELONA SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER (ES)
Scientific Mentor: Beatriz Eguzkitza
Scientific Mentor: Silvia Ceccacci
Scientific Mentor: Jeronimo Calderon
Scientific Mentor: Guillermo Marin
IN4ART (NL)
Art-driven Innovation Mentor: Rodolfo Groenewoud van Vliet
Art-driven Innovation Mentor: Lija Groenewoud van Vliet
MEDIA SOLUTION CENTER BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG / HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING CENTRE STUTTGART (DE)
Scientific Mentor: Uwe Wössner
Scientific Mentor: Leyla Kern
Scientific Mentor: Susanne Malheiros
FUNDACIÓN ÉPICA LA FURA DELS BAUS (ES)
Artistic Mentor: Pep Gatell
Artistic Mentor: Fco. Javier Iglesias Gracia
PINA/HEKA (SI)
Artistic Mentor: Mauricio Valdes San Emeterio
Communication: Taja Kavčič