Photo: Karla Hiraldo Voleau
Ignacio Merino is a multidisciplinary designer born in Spain. Born in Spain, he resided in Switzerland, Germany, the Czech Republic and Italy. Upon his graduation from the Zaragoza University’s Product Design Engineer program, he continued to work for many Italian and German automakers, including Maserati and Audi.
In 2016 he eventually moved to Switzerland where he mastered on Product Design at ECAL, collaborating with brands such a Qwstion, Foscarini and MIT-FormLab.
After relocating to Italy, he worked as Design-Researcher at the Free University of Bozen/Bolzano together with Nitzan Cohen at the Design Friction Lab, leading the Sustainable Smart Parasite project, (printed technologies applied to nano-electronics) as well as carrying out the DIYR project (the future of open source: manufacturing aesthetics and logic), 2018-22.
Currently he is leading the design team at Align Office, Red Dot Award winner 2020.
Ignacio is concern about the complexity of modern constructions. Understand and reinterpret the interaction of our complex surrounding is the current goal of his work.
Contact
39100, Bolzano, Italy
+34 687 144 803
Awards
↗ Red Dot Award for Awake 1.0 – 720Protections
by ALIGN OFFICE, 2020
CEEI Aragon, IDEA contest, Second prize for AEFACTS: “Improving energy efficiency in heavy transport vehicles”, 2013
Scientific publications
2023
↗ “Innocell Bioreactor: An Open-Source Development to Produce Biomaterials for Food and Packaging Based on Fermentation Processes” – ISSN 2311-5637
↗ “Laser-Induced, Green and Biocompatible Paper-Based Devices for Circular Electronics” – (Adv. Funct. Mater. 17/2023) DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202210422 ISSN 1616-301X
2022
↗ “Screen-Printed Flexible Circular and Rectangular Silver Spirals for Planar Electrodynamic Loudspeakers: A Comparative Study of Pressure Frequency Response” – 2022 6th IEEE Electron Devices Technology & Manufacturing Conference (EDTM), DOI: 10.1109/EDTM53872.2022.9798156
↗ “3D printing of non-planar concrete layers for the development of innovative structures.”
– Proceedings of the 2nd fib Symposium on Concrete and Concrete Structures, Rome 2021. ISBN 978-2-940643-13-4
2021
↗ “An Open-Source Bioreactor Enhancing Microbial Cellulose Production and Novel Sustainable substances” – Conference: 2021 IEEE International Flexible Electronics Technology Conference (IFETC), August 2021, DOI: 10.1109/IFETC49530.2021.9580510.
↗ “2.4 GHz Microstrip Patch Antenna Fabricated by Means of Laser Induced Graphitization of a Cellulose-based Paper Substrate” – Proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing, KES-SDM 2021: Sustainable Design and Manufacturing pp 77-86
Group Exhibitions
↗ “Sustainable Smart Parasites”, Neues Museum Nuernberg, MATERIAL+ Future issues in design, 2023
“Europa20”, Bolzano Art Week, 2022
“Homegrown”, Bolzano Art Week, 2021
↗ “Sustainable Smart Parasites”, CHI Italy, Free University of Bolzano, 2021
↗ “ECAL Digital Market” enters the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2021
↗ “ECAL DIGITAL MARKET”, Cibone Store, Tokyo, 2019 
“ECAL DIGITAL MARKET”, Exhibited at V&A Museum, London, 2018
“ECAL DIGITAL MARKET” Vitra Design Museum, 2018
↗ “ECAL DIGITAL MARKET” Milan design week, Spazio Orzo 16, 2018
↗ “Four by Three x QWSTION”, ECAL X QWSTION, Zurich, 2018
↗ “Four by Three x QWSTION”, Viena Design Week, 2017
Press and Magazines
↗ Dezeen – ‘ÉCAL students transform Milanese palazzo into 3D-printing factory’
↗ Material Driven – ‘Industrial PMMA tubes brought to life–The Morsetto Lamps’ 
↗ Dezeen – ‘QWSTION teams up with ECAL students to explore new ways of carrying’
↗ Carryology – ‘ECAL + QWSTION: These Student Prototypes Will Blow Your Mind’