Mathias Bernhard is an architect and computational design specialist. His main research focus is on the creation of design instruments that explore the full geometric potential of additive manufacturing.

He studied architecture at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL and at ETH Zurich. He specialized in digital fabrication at the rapid architectural prototyping laboratory RAPLAB and in computational design in a master of advanced studies MAS in computer aided architectural design CAAD. He joined the CAAD group in 2009 as a research and teaching assistant and worked architectural projects as a computational design specialist, taught courses to both master and post-graduate level students before starting his doctorate. His thesis “Domain Transforms in Architecture – Encoding and Decoding of Cultural Artefacts” draws a map of the variegated field of CAD, and investigates the implications of alternative models of abstraction and their creative potential. In 2015, he joined the Digital Building Technologies DBT group where he now holds a post-doctoral researcher position. His responsibilities are the development of various computational design programming libraries, as well as the coordination of and teaching at the MASdfab in architecture and digital fabrication.