Sophie Falkeis is a multidisciplinary designer based in Vienna and Zurich, working at the intersection of science, art and design. Her work investigates evolutionary mechanisms under anthropogenic influence by envisioning future scenarios of multi-species cohabitation.
Alongside her artistic practice, Sophie currently acts as Co-Pi of the project echoes - funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation - at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, ETH-Domain, in Zurich. echoes investigates the complexities of a climate-changed world, such as extreme events and megadrougths, in their ecological, geopolitical and socio-economical dimensions, and joins Speculative Design with High Performance Computing in a hybrid approach of imagining possible futures.
Her work is part of the permanent collection at MAK Museum for Applied Arts Vienna (AT) and has been exhibited at various venues, including the London Design Biennale (UK), Vienna Design Biennale (AT), Dutch Design Week (NL), Floriade Expo 2022 (NL), Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (CN), and Kornhausforum Bern (CH), and has been featured in the New York Times. She has previously worked at Iris van Herpen Couture in Amsterdam and was a research fellow at Terreform One in New York City. Sophie gave a keynote at the 2023 Species on the Move Conference in Florida, spoke at the Centre for Marine Socioecology Tasmania, PRIMER21 Global San Francisco, DDW Talks Eco Pioneers, as well as other international conferences. For her work, she has been awarded a START-Stipendium by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts & Culture and the Planet Love Prize by the Vienna Business Agency. 
She is also the founder of The Encounters Lab,​​ an interdisciplinary research platform connecting science and design. 
Portrait (c) Sarah Franzl 
SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS
Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport
    Project Grant   |  2023/24    
Falling Walls, Breakthrough of the Year, Global Summit
    Art and Science, Finalist   |  2023
Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport
    Project Grant   |  2023    
Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research
    Project Grant   |  2022  
Vienna Business Agency
    Content Vienna, Planet Love Prize  |  2021
Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport
    Start-Stipendium Architecture & Design   |  2021    
TALKS & CONFERENCE CONTRIBUTIONS
UNESCO HQ - World Day for Glaciers, UN Glacier Preservation Year - Cascading Effects 
    Paris   |  20 March 2025
Cumulus Budapest - (P)References of Design, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design
    Budapest   |  16 May 2024   
EUNIC Denmark: Women Designing the Future. Panel Discussion. Statens Værksteder for Kunst.
    Copenhagen   |  8 Mar 2024
ISTA Institute of Science & Technology Austria, Lecture - Turning the Ecological Gears, Ecological Speculations - Narratives for the Futures.
    Klosterneuburg   |  16 Nov 2023
4s Conference: Panel 87 Environmental Futures - progressing human-nature relationships towards creative reflections and interventions. Discussant. 
    Honolulu   |  8 Nov 2023
World Futures Studies Federation: Ecological Speculations - Narratives for the Futures
    Paris   |  25 Oct 2023   
CCIM Symposium: Climate Change and Infection, the rising Challenge. Medical University Vienna.
    Vienna   |  16 Oct 2023
Species on the Move Conference, Keynote - Anticipatory Ecology meets Speculative Design, Cross-disciplinary approach of communicating scientific data through visual storytelling 
    Bonita Springs   |  16 May 2023
New Design University, Lunchtime Lecture - Facts with Fiction, Ecological Speculations and Immersive Installations
    St. Pölten   |  16 March 2023   
Kornhausforum Bern, Artist Talk - Im Gehen begriffen
    Bern   |  14 September 2022   
CMS Webinar: Anticipatory Ecology Meets Speculative Design
    Hobart   |  2 May 2022
DDWTalks: Eco Pioneers - Next Biodiversity
    Eindhoven   |  23 Oct 2021
PRIMER21 Global Conference - Now What?
    San Francisco   |  8 July 2021   
HASI Human Animal Relations Conference - Challenges and Opportunities in Changing Realities
    Tel Aviv   |  3 June 2021 
Exhibitions 
2024, Apr-May: Berlin Design Week, Design & Science, Peter-Behrens-Bau, Berlin (DE)
2023 - 2024, Nov-Jan: Turning the Ecological Gears (solo show), Vista, ISTA Institute of Science & technology Austria, Klosterneuburg (AT)
2023, Sep: Vienna Design Week, Unding, Design in Gesellschaft, Vienna (AT)
2023, June -July: DateDing, Design in Gesellschaft, Vienna (AT)
2022 - 2023, Oct - Feb: Synthetic Ecology, Beijing Art and Technology Biennale, 789 CUBE, Beijing (CN)
2022, Nov: Turning the Ecological Gears (solo show), Vienna (AT)
2022, Sep: Vienna Design Week - Design in Gesellschaft, Ding Dong, Vienna (AT)
2022, Sep: MAK Design Nite - MAK Menu, Design in Gesellschaft, Vienna (AT)
2022, Sep - Oct: Alpen Traum & Wandlung, Kornhausforum Bern, Bern (CH)
2022, Sep: MAK Permanent Collection, Design Labor, Vienna (AT)
2022, Apr - Oct: Floriade Expo, Dutch Innovation Pavillion, Nature Loves Technology, Almere (NL)
2021, Oct: Dutch Design Week: Bibliotheek Eindhoven, Eindhoven (NL)
2021, Sep - Oct: Vienna Design Week - Design in Gesellschaft, Vienna (AT)
2021, May - Oct: Vienna Design Biennale - CLIMATE CARE, MAK Vienna (AT)
2021, June - July: Angewandte Festival, Vienna (AT)
2020, June: Angewandte Festival, Vienna (AT)
2018, September: Austrian Pavilion at London Design Biennale 2018 (UK)
2017, June: Vienna Design Biennale - Design for Agency, MAK Design Forum (AT)
2017, June: Vibrations, KADK, Copenhagen (DK)
2017, March: Possible Sustainable Future at Guldminen, Copenhagen (DK)
2016, June: The Essence, University of Applied Arts, Vienna (AT)​​​​​
Experience
Iris van Herpen Couture, Amsterdam  
    2D/3D Design Internship | Apr - Aug 2019 
Terreform One, New Lab, Brooklyn NY 
    Research Fellow | Sept 2018 
falkeis²architects, Vienna 
    Internship | Sept - Oct 2017 
Vienna Design Week, Vienna 
    Internship | July 2013 

Education
The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK), Copenhagen 
    Exchange, Industrial Design and Ceramic Form | 2017 
University of Applied Arts, Vienna 
    Studio Industrial Design, Fiona Raby | 2015 - 2016  
    Studio Design Investigations, Anab Jain | 2016 - 2021 
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London 
    Introduction to Product Design | 2014 
University of Vienna, Vienna 
    English and American Studies | 2014 - 2015 
University of St Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland 
    Creative Writing Summer Programme | 2013