Besides the financial support of the school in Nairobi, the goal of the project is diverse: it’s an experiment in co-creation as a new and empowering way to work together internationally, it will sensitize the students to see their work as a creative service in a client relationship and it offers the kids from the Love School Center the opportunity to participate in the purchase of the the grounds and thus support their feeling of self-efficacy. For all participants this project will be an inspiring, mind expanding experience.

With a focus on craft, material understanding and form development the project is dedicated to the number Pi = 3,14… The work will be mostly in porcelain and fine metals, wood and fabric are possible as well. Besides the design process the question of value of those materials, the necessity of new products and the relation to a global social context will be reflected. There is a cooperation with the „Love School Center“ in the Slum Kangemi in Nairobi, Kenya. Through the NGO „NYENDO“ we have the artist and a coordinator Anthony Karori on-site, who will work with the children around the topic of pi and will create drawings, collages, photographs etc. together. In exchange with the students from UdK these first interpretations will be taken up and developed further aesthetically, functionally and formally. The students will be in touch with the kids on a regular basis through skype and the finished design objects will be sold in an auction at the end of the semester. The revenue serves the purchase of land on which the Love School Center stands which is in danger of being cleared out due to speculation.

Concept & Supervision: GastProf. Susanne Stauch, IPP, ID2, UdK
Partner: Irmgard Wutte/ Nyendo NGO
Financial Support: Martin Bisicky & Dominik Becker

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Very much looking forward to participating as a design thinking coach at the Impact Week in July. It is a program uniting people from a variety of countries to develop sustainable business models using different innovation techniques like Design Thinking and Business Model Generation.

We had a very intense 3 day kick-off workshop in Sauen with 11 product design and 10 GWK students diving into the topic of #OpenCare and how this relates to hacking, people on the move, mental resilience, food cultures and their own lives. The project is contributing its research and design results to the project OP3N CARE, which is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 framework programme. We have very ambitious goals: working interdisciplinary within the university and in collaboration with the online community Edgeryders, this project is rooted in a real world context. StartNext is another partner, offering us input and support to create high quality campaigns to crowdfund the design results. Those will be shown at designtransfer, UdK in July 2016 and in a final exhibition of the research project in Milan and London in 2017. Another great opportunity for the students is the chance to apply for a fellowship to get further support on their ideas, e.g. by CERN. To find out about the project, visit the  OP3N Care Community for deep content and interest in the research or the Hacking Utopia website for a general overview of our project work

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As I was going to move to Schillerkiez in Neukölln, which is a hot spot of gentrification right next to the Tempelhof air field I very soon realized the intense atmosphere in the neighborhood. Being inspired by the meetings with the EdgeRyder’s community I decided to start a local initiative to find out what the neighborhood needs and wants. The first events we did were some meetings with people from a community building background where the major problem already became obvious. Nobody from the neighborhood turned up although I had spend several hours to walk around cafés, markets, the church, supermarket – you name it – to spread the word and invite people to come. As a local action we then spread the poster campaign by Litekultur around the neighborhood hoping to get in touch with curious people. Dead loss. I did apply for funding via Projekt Neue Nachbarschaft with the idea to make a book which presents the people and their initiatives especially through one of the things that connects us all: food. So it was supposed to become a Schillerkiez cooking book with personal stories and background information of the neighbors and their  effort to support the neighborhood. Unfortunately the project wasn’t selected for funding and I really hope to find other ways to support the approach of giving something back to the Kiez.

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