Photo: Karla Hiraldo Voleau
Ignacio Merino is a multidisciplinary designer, design researcher, and educator who explores the complexity of modern constructions through an innovative design-engineering approach. His work focuses on understanding and reinterpreting the interactions within our complex surroundings, particularly in sustainable and smart technologies.
Over the past decade, he has built extensive experience across Europe, working at the intersection of product design, automotive industry, and sustainable technologies. After graduating from Zaragoza University’s Product Design Engineering program, he collaborated with various Italian and German automakers before pursuing his master’s in Product Design at ECAL in Switzerland, where he partnered with prestigious brands such as Qwstion, Foscarini, and MIT-FormLab.
As a Design Researcher at the Free University of Bozen/Bolzano (2018-2022), together with Nitzan Cohen at the Design Friction Lab, he led the novel Sustainable Smart Parasite project (1, 2, 3), investigating printed technologies in nano-electronics, and carried out the DIYR project exploring the future of open-source manufacturing aesthetics. Currently, he holds a position as Contract Professor for product design at the same institution while co-founding and leading the design team at Align Office, a design agency working across automotive, parametric, product, and industrial design, (awarded the Red Dot Design Award in 2020).
His interdisciplinary approach combines design engineering with sustainability principles, focusing on creating meaningful connections between people and technology while addressing contemporary environmental challenges. Through his work at Align Office and academic research, he continues to push the boundaries of sustainable design and innovative manufacturing processes.
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’