Filippo Nassetti At The Intersection Of Design & Technology

04.09.2025
4 min read
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Filippo Nassetti is a designer and multimedia artist who has built a career by asking questions that most of us wouldn’t think to ask: Where do the boundaries between the natural and the artificial really lie? What happens when digital processes meet the fragility of the human body? Can architecture begin to breathe like a living organism?

Postnatural Head

These questions are not abstract thought experiments for him, but the foundations of a design practice that has steadily earned international recognition. Working at the crossroads of art, architecture, technology, and science, Nassetti develops projects that feel futuristic and deeply human.

From Computational Experiments to Global Recognition

Generative Orthoses

Nassetti co-founded MHOX in 2012, a design research collective in Italy. At a time when 3D printing and computational design were just getting started, MHOX was already exploring radical possibilities from biomorphic wearables like the Carapace and Collagene Masks, to Generative Orthoses, digital medical supports that were designed uniquely for each body. These works caught the attention of international media such as The New York Times, Dezeen, Designboom, Wired Italia, and helped place Nassetti among the voices pushing design into technology.

Between 2015 and 2023, Nassetti moved to London to join Zaha Hadid Design (ZHD), where he was in charge of computational research, interior design, and experimental projects. There, he worked on sculptural products, installations, and interior explorations.

Filippo Nassetti Studio

In 2023, Nassetti started his independent practice and founded Filippo Nassetti Studio, his London-based platform. The studio takes on a dual role, producing artistic projects that combine research and experimentation while also collaborating with industry and institutions on concept-driven computational designs.

One of his most celebrated recent projects is Breathing Architecture, developed during his residency at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. The project is about buildings as living systems that respond, grow, and breathe. For this, he received recognition at the S+T+ARTS Prize 2025, one of Europe’s leading awards for art and technology.

Breathing Architecture

Filippo Nassetti’s Philosophy

Filippo Nassetti is celebrated for a design process that breaks beyond architecture’s traditional boundaries, placing the human body at the center of creative exploration. His practice is rooted in a fusion of art, technology, and material science, consistently questioning where the natural ends and the artificial begins. Across his work—whether sculptural eyewear, masks, or speculative wearables—the philosophy takes root in his Postnatural Design agenda and reveals a world where digital intelligence, computational tools, and organic forms intersect.

Thalassic Mask

Nassetti’s Workflow 

Nassetti’s workflow typically moves through several key stages:

Concept Generation

Using AI platforms like Midjourney, Filippo explores speculative ideas, looks for unexpected formal potentials, and develops visual concepts for wearable and architectural experiments.

Anatomical Modeling

Human base meshes are created digitally with tools like MakeHuman, providing accurate geometry as a canvas for design.

Parametric and Procedural Design

Design development takes place in node-based software like Rhino + Grasshopper and SideFX Houdini, where generative algorithms simulate growth, erosion, and organic patterning. These digital processes mimic natural systems, allowing for radical geometries and surface manipulation that would be impossible to achieve by hand.

AI Integration

Artificial intelligence augments early concept development, helps generate assets and textures, and powers the visualization and animation of final designs.

Cross-platform Workflow

The process involves multiple software platforms, enabling hybrid workflows that combine the strengths of computational modeling and AI-driven creativity.

Narrative and Visualization

Final proposals are refined with cinematic visualizations and storytelling animations (often powered by Runway ML), making the work accessible technically and emotionally.

The Body Architecture 4.0 Workshop

Breathing Architecture II

The upcoming Body Architecture 4.0 workshop, led by Filippo Nassetti and hosted by PAACADEMY, explores how computational design and AI can reshape ideas of bodies, wearables, and spatial innovation. The workshop is scheduled for 27-28 September 2025. Across two days, participants will learn using tools such as Rhino, Grasshopper, Houdini, MakeHuman, Midjourney AI, and Runway ML. The program covers concept generation, digital anatomical modeling, parametric workflows, and visualization—offering insight into Nassetti’s experimental approach to body-centered design.

Whether you are interested in fashion, sportswear, medical design, or experimental body architecture, this workshop by Filippo Nassetti is an opportunity to explore how design can become a living process.

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