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OCEAN Design Research Association is registered in Norway.

OCEAN was originally founded by Michael Ulrich Hensel, Ulrich Königs, Tom Verebes and Bostjan Vuga as a think-tank for experimental design in architecture in 1994 in London. In 1995 the group expanded into a network with groups in Cologne, Helsinki, London, Ljubljana and Oslo. In 1998 the Cologne, Helsinki and Oslo groups fused and operated under the name OCEAN NORTH until 2006. During the same year the revision of the network and its expansion began. In result OCEAN was renamed and restructured as a design research association registered in Norway in 2008 under the founding chairman Prof. Michael Ulrich Hensel and the founding secretary Prof. Dr. Birger Ragnvald Sevaldson.

Today OCEAN is an independent, inter-disciplinary and not-for-profit design research association that conducts research by design, bringing together the disciplines of architecture, urban and landscape design, industrial and product design, engineering, biology, ecology, micro-climatology and musical composition. The mission of the association is to initiate, undertake, promote and host collaboration in design research with the aim for improve the built environment and anthropobiosphere, by means of developing and exploring new paradigms to design that are heterogeneous, performative, context-specific, and culturally, socially and environmentally sustainable. The network is active in the intersection between practice, research and education and has currently 11 members and 2 honorary members located in Australia, England, Israel, Norway, Turkey and Cyprus.

Current research areas include Systems-oriented Design (Research Director: Prof. Dr. Birger R. Sevaldson) ^[1], Performance-oriented Design / Performance-oriented Architecture (Research Director: Prof. Michael U. Hensel) ^[2], Multiple Performance Integration Models (Research Director: Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel), and Urban Grounds (Research Director: Jeffrey P. Turko).

The work of OCEAN has been published and exhibited widely, including the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2002 and 2004, and the Beijing Architectural Biennale 2008. Among its best known work to date is the ‘World Centre for Human Concerns’ designed for the exhibition ‘A New World Trade Centre’, exhibited at the Max Protetch Gallery in New York, the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2002 and the German Museum of Architecture. ^[3]

1. ^ www.systemsorienteddesign.net
2. ^ www.performanceorienteddesign.net
3. ^ Protetch M. Ed. (2004). A New World Trade Center – Design Proposals from leading Architects Worldwide. New York: Regan Books Harper Collins. 110-111.

OCEAN members:
Natasha Barrett
Daniel Coll I Capdevila
Guðjón Thor Erlendsson
Mattia Gambardella
Yasha Jacob Grobman- Board Member
Michael Ulrich Hensel- Board Member
Pavel Hladik
Adrian Lahoud
Birger Ragnvald Sevaldson- Chairman
Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel - Board Member
Jeffrey P. Turko - Board Member

OCEAN Honorary members:
Mark Burry
George Jeronimidis

External links

http://www.ocean-designresearch.net
http://www.systemsorienteddesign.net
http://www.performanceorienteddesign.net
http://www.membranespaces.net