Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen’s research explores the evolving relationship between architecture, sustainability, and technology, with a particular focus on how computational design and digital fabrication reshape the way architecture is conceived, materialised, and maintained. Her work investigates the emergence of new digital-material relations, advancing architecture as an interdisciplinary field that integrates design, engineering, and material science in response to pressing environmental challenges.

Her early research established foundational links between computational design and architectural thinking, examining how modelling, simulation, and interaction can inform spatial practice. This developed into a sustained focus on digital fabrication and material systems, where her work has contributed to defining an international research field centred on the integration of computation and material behaviour.

More recently, her research has shifted towards bio-based and metabolistic architectures, exploring how living and regenerative material systems can redefine architectural practice within a sustainability framework. She investigates how machine learning, digital fabrication, and bio-materials can enable adaptive, responsive, and circular building systems. This work positions architecture within broader ecological systems, addressing sustainability through material lifecycles, environmental responsiveness, and resource interdependencies.

Alongside these technological and material investigations, her research advances targeted theoretical contributions that reshape architectural ontological thinking. In particular, it develops an expanded understanding of architectural lifespans, positioning buildings not as static objects but as dynamic, evolving entities embedded within continuous processes of growth, decay, and transformation. Across these domains, her research combines conceptual development with technological innovation, contributing to new models of architectural production that engage with complexity, variability, and ecological embeddedness.

Across her work, large-scale research initiatives have established new methodological and conceptual frameworks for architecture. The Complex Modelling project, supported by a Sapere Aude Advanced Grant from the Independent Research Fund Denmark, investigated the infrastructures of architectural design, developing workflows that integrate parametrisation, simulation, and fabrication across scales. By enabling feedback between material behaviour, design processes, and fabrication logics, it expanded the agency of computational design and redefined how information circulates within architectural production.

This approach was extended through the coordination of the European Marie Curie Innovative Training Network InnoChain, a large-scale EU-funded initiative that brought together academic and industry partners to advance digital design-to-production processes. The project consolidated a shared research platform for computational design, robotic fabrication, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Building on these developments, Predicting Response, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark, introduces artificial intelligence to model and anticipate the behaviour of non-standard and bio-based materials, advancing new forms of design intelligence that link machine learning with material practice. Most recently, the Eco-Metabolistic Architecture project, supported by an ERC Advanced Grant, synthesises these trajectories into a holistic framework for bio-based design, integrating computational modelling, fabrication, and living material systems. It develops methods for engaging material lifecycles, environmental responsiveness, and regenerative processes.

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen’s publications span journals, conference proceedings, monographs, and edited volumes, reflecting a research practice that operates across both scientific and design-oriented modes of dissemination. Her work contributes to the development of computational design, digital fabrication, and material practice in architecture, while more recently advancing bio-based and ecological approaches to building.

Her publication record demonstrates a sustained engagement with the integration of computation and material systems, addressing topics such as parametrisation, robotic fabrication, textile architectures, and machine learning in design. In recent years, this work has expanded towards bio-based materials, circular construction, and eco-metabolistic frameworks, including contributions that examine repair, adaptation, and temporal design processes in architecture. Alongside peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers, her work includes monographs such as CITA Complex Modelling and a series of edited volumes that have contributed to shaping emerging research fields, including the Design Modelling Symposium series. Across these formats, her publications combine technical development with conceptual reflection, positioning architectural research as both a scientific and cultural practice.

With more than 140 publications to date, including journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, and edited collections, her work has played a central role in establishing and advancing the field of digital-material practice in architecture.

Link to publications

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen’s teaching develops new pedagogical models that integrate research, design, and technology, with a particular emphasis on the role of architecture within broader sustainability transitions. Her work explores how computational methods and material experimentation can be embedded within architectural education, fostering interdisciplinary thinking and practice.

At the Royal Danish Academy, she founded and led CITA Studio, a research-based Master’s programme in Computation in Architecture, establishing new links between architectural education and STEM and STEAM disciplines. The programme emphasised experimental design methods, digital fabrication, and material-driven processes as central to contemporary architectural practice.

Alongside this, her engagement with doctoral education has been central to her academic work. She has supervised more than twenty PhD projects across diverse formats, from internally driven research to industrial and internationally co-supervised doctoral programmes . Her approach to PhD training positions the doctoral level as a formative layer within the research culture, where new connections between theory, practice, and society are actively developed. Her teaching and leadership in PhD education focus on creating shared learning environments that bring together diverse methodological approaches, from speculative and experimental practices to analytical and quantitative research. Through initiatives such as the InnoChain doctoral network and the Sustainable Futures course series, she has developed structured training frameworks that combine individual research projects with collective learning, interdisciplinary exchange, and transferable skills development.

This work is complemented by extensive international engagement through doctoral courses, evaluation roles, and collaborations with leading institutions, contributing to the ongoing development of PhD education as an open, networked, and globally connected practice.

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen contributes actively to international academic discourse through keynote lectures, invited talks, and the organisation and leadership of conferences and symposia across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. A central component of this work has been her role in shaping research agendas through conference leadership. Most notably, she served as General Reporter and Head of the Science Track for the UIA World Congress of Architects 2023 in Copenhagen, Sustainable Futures – Leave No One Behind, where she curated and led the scientific programme, positioning architectural research within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

She has held the prestigious Paul Philippe Cret Visiting Professorship at the University of Pennsylvania, where she led research and teaching on advanced biomaterial design, exploring the integration of bio-based materials, computation, and fabrication within architectural practice. She has further contributed to key disciplinary platforms, chairing Fabricate 2024 and playing leading roles in the Design Modelling Symposium series (2014–2024), where her work as organiser and editor has supported the development of computational and digital-material design as a research field. Her academic service includes advisory and evaluation roles for major research environments, including the University of Stuttgart and the NCCR Digital Fabrication (DFAB) at ETH Zurich, contributing to the development of advanced research and doctoral programmes.

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen has received several prestigious international and national awards recognising her contributions to architectural research, innovation, and education. In 2023, she was awarded the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, under the patronage of UNESCO, acknowledging her work in advancing sustainability through computational and bio-based design. Her research excellence has also been recognised by the Danish Ministry for Higher Education and Science through the Elite Research Prize, awarded for outstanding contributions to the development of new knowledge and research environments. Within the field of computational design, she received the ACADIA Innovative Academic Program Award of Excellence, highlighting her role in establishing new pedagogical and research frameworks that bridge architecture, technology, and material practice. Earlier in her career, she was awarded the Anna Nordlander Prize, recognising her significant contributions as a female architect to the development of the discipline.

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen’s work engages broad audiences through exhibitions, installations, and interdisciplinary collaborations that extend architectural research into public and cultural contexts. Her practice-based approach is often realised through full-scale prototypes, presented at leading international venues including the Venice Architecture Biennale and other major exhibitions. Alongside this, she actively organises smaller-scale symposia and public events that bring together scientific and general audiences, creating spaces for shared reflection across disciplines. This includes initiatives such as Broken World Building Symposium, which explored themes of repair, care, and material futures through dialogue between researchers, practitioners, and the public. Her outreach also extends to broader societal engagement, including educational activities aimed at younger audiences. In spring 2025, she contributed to public programming at Designmuseum Denmark, developing formats that introduce children and non-specialist audiences to architectural thinking through material exploration and design.

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen contributes to academic publishing through editorial work, peer review, and the development of thematic research platforms. She has edited and co-edited a series of influential volumes and conference proceedings that have shaped discourse in computational and material-based design. Her editorial work includes contributions to special issues such as Ardeth, engaging critically with questions of fragility, care, and ecological thinking in architecture. She is currently developing an edited volume with contributors from the UIA Scientific Committee, to be published by Routledge in 2027. Alongside this, she acts as reviewer for leading journals and conferences, supporting the advancement of interdisciplinary research.

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen’s work is grounded in interdisciplinary and international collaboration, bringing together architecture, engineering, material science, and computational design. Through CITA and large-scale research projects, she has established long-term partnerships with academic institutions, industry, and cultural organisations. Her collaborations span research, education, and practice, enabling the integration of experimental design, advanced fabrication, and material innovation. Working across scales and sectors, she contributes to shared research infrastructures and collective knowledge production, fostering environments where diverse expertise converges to address complex challenges in sustainability, technology, and architectural practice.

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen’s work has been featured in architectural journals, design publications, and exhibition platforms, reflecting its relevance within contemporary discussions on architecture, technology, and sustainability. Her research has been presented through articles, interviews, and project features addressing topics such as digital fabrication, material practice, and bio-based design. Her projects and installations have been included in international publications and exhibition contexts, contributing to the dissemination of research within both professional and public domains. Through these formats, her work engages broader audiences and supports ongoing conversations on the role of architecture in environmental and technological development.

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen
Professor of Architecture and Digital Technologies
Head of CITA – Centre for Information Technology and Architecture
Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation

Philip de Langes Allé 11
1435 Copenhagen K
Denmark

Phone: +45 41 70 17 36 
Email: mette.thomsen@kglakademi.dk 

ORCID: 0000-0002-3093-8556