Dr. M.A. (Mariana) Popescu
Dr. M.A. (Mariana) Popescu
Contact
Profile
Biography
Mariana is a computational architect and structural designer with a strong interest in innovative ways of approaching the fabrication process and use of materials in construction. Her area of expertise is computational and parametric design with a focus on digital fabrication and sustainable design. Her extensive involvement in projects related to promoting sustainability has led to a multilateral development of skills, which combine the fields of architecture, engineering, computational design and digital fabrication. Before joining TU Delft, she was a post-doctoral researcher at the Block Research Group (BRG) at the Institute of Technology in Architecture at ETH Zurich, involved in the NCCR Digital Fabrication, where in 2019 she also obtained her PhD, which was nominated for the ETH Medal for outstanding dissertation. Her research focuses on the development of KnitCrete, a novel, material-saving, labour-reducing, cost-effective formwork system for casting of doubly-curved geometries in concrete using 3D knitting. She is the main author of the award-winning KnitCandela shell and has been included as a "Pioneer" in the MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 global list in 2019.
Awards
2019 - MIT Technology Review - "Pioneer" in the "35 Under 35" global list of Innovators 2020 - Digital Futures "Young" Award
Expertise
Publications
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2023
Preface to the special issue on Intelligent Construction and Automation
Bruno Figueiredo / Mariana Popescu / Christian Louter
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2023
Thin-walled concrete beams with stay-in-place flexible formworks and integrated textile shear reinforcement
Minu Lee / Jaime Mata-Falcón / Mariana Popescu / Walter Kaufmann
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2022
Design-to-Fabrication Workflow for Bending-Active Gridshells as Stay-in-Place Falsework and Reinforcement for Ribbed Concrete Shell Structures
Lotte Scheder-Bieschin (Aldinger) / Kerstin Spiekermann / Mariana Popescu / Serban Bodea / Tom Van Mele / Philippe Block
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2021
Design of a funicular concrete bridge with knitted formwork
Sam Bouten / Mariana Popescu / Francesco Ranaudo / Tom van Mele / Philippe Block / Pierre Mengeot / Kenneth Wyns
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2021
Structural design, digital fabrication and construction of the cable-net and knitted formwork of the KnitCandela concrete shell
Mariana Popescu / Matthias Rippmann / Andrew Liew / Lex Reiter / Robert J. Flatt / Tom Van Mele / Philippe Block
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