Michael and Defne are the London-based partners of Ocean North an international and multi-disciplinary research network. OCEAN NORTH is located in London (Michael Hensel and Defne Sunguroglu), Frankfurt (Prof. Achim Menges and Eva Scheffler), Oslo (Prof. Dr. Birger Sevaldson and Prof. Steinar Killi) and Rome (Aleksandra Jaeschke and Andrea Di Stefano) and conducts research in the intersection between architecture, industrial design, biology and computational sciences. The current partners and principal researchers have backgrounds in architecture and urban design, industrial and interior design, engineering and agricultural sciences. Recent and forthcoming publications include Morpho-Ecologies (Ed. Michael Hensel and Achim Menges, AA Publications, 2006), AD 'Versatility & Vicissitude' (Ed. Michael Hensel and Achim Menges, AD Wiley, 2008

Michael is an architect, researcher and writer. In addition to his work in OCEAN NORTH, he is a board member of BIONIS – the Biomimetic Network for Industrial Sustainability, member of the editoral boards of AD Wiley and of JBE – The Journal of Bionic Engineering [Elsevier Scientific Press], and editor of many journals and books. He is currently director of the Emergent Technologies and Design master program at the Architectural Association in London and has taught, lectured, published and exhibited worldwide.

Defne is a partner in OCEAN NORTH and a researcher in the Emergent Technologies and Design Programme at the AA, collaborating with Buro Happold through a dedicated research fellowship. In 2006 she received the Holloway Trust Award for an outstanding contribution to the construction industry through her work entitled 'Complex Brick Assemblies', as well as the Anthony Pott Memorial Award to support her research and detailed analysis of Eladio Dieste's work. Her work has been widely published in Turkey, is included in Morpho-Ecologies (AA Publications, London, 2006) and is scheduled for publication in a forthcoming issue of AD entitled 'Versatility & Vicissitude'.

Fabian Scheurer is a computer scientist with Design to Production—an interdisciplinary consultancy for the digital production of complex architectural designs based in Zurich. He graduated from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) after studying Computer Sciences and Architecture. In 2005 he co-founded caad.designtoproduction as a research group at the ETH and now is an associate in the spin-off company of the same name. His research is focused on the practical aspects of artificial-life methods in architectural construction and has been applied to a number of collaborative projects between architects, engineers, and fabrication experts, including ‘Futuropolis’, a timber installation with Studio Daniel Libeskind in 2005 and the Hungerberg Funicular with Zaha Hadid in 2006.

Dr. Bert Bongers has a background in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a doctorate in Human-Computer Interaction Design form Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His research focuses on making technology more accessible through physical forms of interaction, including haptic feedback. He has worked as an instrument builder at Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) in Amsterdam, as well as freelance for many composers, musicians, architects, and artists such as Laetita Sonami,Michel Waisvisz and Kas Oosterhuis. He worked for Philips in Eindhoven as an interaction researcher, was professor and technical director at the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten, the postgraduate artist in residence academy in Amsterdam, and conducted research on novel interfaces for motion-impaired computer users at the Engineering Design Centre at the University of Cambridge. He is currently involved in the Metapolis Institute for Advanced Architecture in Barcelona and the Department of Architecture at Delft University of Technology. He has published his research in scientific journals and other publications and presented his work at conferences and lectures.

Peggy Deamer is principal of her own firm, Deamer Architecture and her design work has been published in Progressive Architecture, House and Garden and The New York Times Magazine.  She has taught at Yale University School of Architecture for the last 25 years prior to taking the position of Head of School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland starting February, 2007. She received her BA in philosophy from Oberlin College (1972), her B.Arch from The Cooper Union (1977), and her Ph.D. from Princeton University (1988). Her Ph.D. was on the English 20th century art and architecture critic, Adrian Stokes, who was analyzed by Melanie Klein and saw his aesthetic work as an extension of her psychoanalytic theories. The interest in psychoanalysis and its relationship to aesthetic theory has extended to theories of the cultural relevance of architecture as both an aesthetic and an institutional practice. Deamer's current work concentrates on how theories of form and architectural production – especially prefabrication and mass-customization – influence contemporary culture and enter the sphere of supposedly "low" culture. Articles written by her have been published in Assemblage, Perspecta, Architecture and the Everyday and Drawing Building Text among other publications. She is the author of The Millennium House, based on a seminar and studio she taught at Yale and co-editor of Re-Reading Perspecta. In October 2006, she organized a symposium entitled "Building (in) the Future: Recasting Labor in Architecture" that looks at the changing division of labor and new notions of authorship in current architecture practice.

Christian Friedrich is an architect born in Germany. After studying Physics and Philosophy in Berlin and completing an architectural engineering degree at Hanzehogeschool Groningen, he finished his graduate education (MSc) in architecture at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands. He is co-founder of the media artist collective Ezthetics. He has been associated with the Hyperbody research group since 2002 and has been involved in several projects of the architectural office of Kas Oosterhuis and Ilona Lénárd, ONL. His research is in the area of interactive architecture and will be conducting a workshop on Virtools and virtual worlds using real-time parametric architectural models.