Information

Danielle Willems is a designer and creative practitioner working at the intersection of spatial design, storytelling, and emerging technologies. Her work focuses on developing creative direction and translating concepts into immersive environments across physical and digital platforms.

As a founding partner of Maeta Design, she has led projects spanning built environments, installations, and experience-driven spaces, combining concept development, art direction, and spatial design to create cohesive and adaptable design systems. Her work emphasizes clarity, material expression, and the ability to translate design intent into executable outcomes across multiple contexts.

Her practice integrates cinematic research, motion graphics, and world building as core design methodologies. Her interdisciplinary work extends across film, game design, virtual environments, robotics, and interactive media, informing both professional projects and teaching. This includes the development of seminar courses such as The Function of Fashion in Architecture, created in collaboration with the Wharton School of Business and supported by RunwayML, exploring AI-driven workflows for garment systems and spatial prototyping.

A significant part of her work explores the intersection of fashion and architecture, developing workflows that translate garment construction, patterning, and material logic into digital and fabrication-driven systems, including 3D printing and robotic fabrication. Across these efforts, her work investigates how emerging technologies reshape design processes, material innovation, and user engagement across spatial and visual environments.

She holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and received her Bachelor of Architecture from SCI-Arc, a school known for innovation and for operating at the edge of design disciplines, where architecture engages with media, technology, and experimental practices. This foundation has informed an approach that consistently operates across multiple design domains and scales.

With over fifteen years of experience in design education, she has led studios and seminars focused on interdisciplinary design processes, advanced modeling, and fabrication workflows. Her experience includes managing both small and large teams, developing consistent design workflows, aligning creative direction, and supporting projects from concept through execution in collaborative environments.