We are happy and proud to have finally launched a first website for our quite ambitious project, that is supposed to bring together initiatives, people and projects to develop formats and methods for empowerment through making and design. If this resonates with you and you think you should be part of our institute, please get in touch!

With great appreciation we announce our participation at State of Design. We will show the project at the Vollgut Lager of Kindl Brewery from June 1 – 4. Anna Badur and I will talk about the project on June 2, 4.30 pm.

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

visit the website

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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This project was dedicated to surface design as a haptic-functional and sensual-adeptable Interface between human and object.

The students approached the design process in three designated steps: supposedly inspiring experiments to get a touch and feel for the material were the starting point, followed and accompanied by a research and concept phase. These three methods eventually merged. Towards the end, of course, when the ideas were tangible, the students focused on parameters, proportions and practicability. The process was meant to be understood as an experimental evolution from analog through digital towards hybrid states. The aim was to develop surface structures that are known from other contexts and are transformed or sampled as such to cause irritation, so far only visually adeptable structures that reach a new quality in porcelain, structures that oscillate between grace and feature. The project is documented on this website.

We will show the results at Galerie erstererster, Pappelallee 69, 10437 Berlin

OPENING  23.04.2016  19.00

EXHIBITION 24. – 26.04.2016, Sun 12.00 – 19.00 & Mon/Tue 17.00 – 21.00

PARTICIPANTS Moriel Blau /Tomma Suki Hinrichsen /Parinaz Jabirian /Emilia Knabe /Markus Koistinen / Laureanne Kootstra /Dennis-Thong Nguyen / Clara Poeverlein / Hyein Pyo / Julius Terhedebrügge

WITH Dipl.Des. Laura Straßer / Dip.Des. Daniel Schulze