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.

 „Cities have a crucial role to play as catalysts of the system change we need. They can embody a new story about development and progress in which the health of biodiversity, foodsheds and watersheds are key indicators of success. A city is most healthy as a meeting place for change agents, outliers, and shadow networks. The healthy city is about participation, not spectacle. Connecting is itself a form of innovation.“ John Thackara

By acknowledging the city as a living system where things grow organically, offering a new human centered fluidity, we will approach its territories as a fertile ground for community regeneration and a healthy (fair, resilient, circular, sustainable) local food system, while  understanding ourselves as agents of change by designing and producing genuine urban abundance.

This living city is already emerging with new kinds of infrastructures: food coops, collective urban gardening and farming, craft breweries etc. We will kick off the semester with a Berlin wide field research, exploring and identifying key elements for local food systems in a community context (production, transformation, distribution, consumption). We will visit and interview grass roots initiatives, start-ups, farmers, community gardens, local producers etc., cook and eat together, explore the different set-ups of community and share it all in a collective map, which will be the starting point for the semester project.

Inspired by emerging disciplines like permaculture, transition and regenerative design, the goal of this project is to experience a socially engaged design practice and to establish a systemic understanding of the topic by investigating different scenarios: we will work with an allotment garden and analyze its specific structures and rules and how these shape its community; we will explore the potential of the „house of statistics“ at Alexanderplatz, a building and space whose purpose still needs to be defined and we will address our thinking towards the very special constraints of the slums in Nairobi and its consequences for community purposes.

The systemic approach will allow us to think at different scales (Berlin/Nairobi) and help us to decolonize knowledge (and design) and to understand, how we can share knowledge and resources in fairer, healthier way.

We will approach these scenarios with questions like:
– How to propose new food products & service systems (PPS) that regenerate local economies as well as communities?
– How to use mobile & lean structures to establish resilient and circular food systems that will not be affected by politics, real estate speculation etc.?
– How to help people to take back the city by establishing shared food production/transformation/systems?

with Virginie Gailing, Prof. Markus Bader,St. Oberholz, KDI, Barefoot Solutions, NGO Nyendo, Edgeryders’ OpenVillage

get more information on the website

While the exhibition of “The Love School Project” is still running, Antony and I will give a Talk at Republica in May, sharing our insights and plans for the future of the project. Looking forward to a big audience and great feedback!

further information

THE LOVE SCHOOL PROJECT
co-creation and design for transformation

VERNISSAGE Thursday · May 4, 2017 · 7pm

EXHIBITION May 5 – 10, 2017

weekend 12pm – 7pm · weekdays 5pm – 9pm
Galerie erstererster · Pappelalle 69 · 10437 Berlin

AUCTION unitedcharity.de/Specials/The-Love-School-Project

PRESENTING Louis Bindernagel · Anna Drewes
Martin Fenske · Georgia von le Fort · Julius Führer
Dario Iannone · Antony Karori · Agnes Kelm
Yannik Rohloff · Anna Ryzhova · Pauline Schlautmann
& Kids from Love School · Kawangware · Nairobi · Kenya

SUPERVISION Prof. Susanne Stauch · Anna Badur
SUPPORT Antony Karori · NGO Nyendo · German Embassy

theloveschoolproject.cre8tives.org

A JOURNEY THROUGH FUNERAL CULTURE HERITAGE IN DIFFERENT CULTURES
Text by Jan Janas

(1) In our Western Christian-based world funeral is a place full of black color and sad faces. It is a very boring and dull ritual disembodied of its original spiritual meaning.
(2) In our Collision we have asked ourselves how to re-interpret funerals in a more contemporary and globalized way, following its long-lasting ritualistic heritage, but without focusing on one worldview, one religion, or one tradition alone.
(3) It appears that celebration and respect are the key words to be taken into consideration. Celebration of live in all its facets—with dead being a part of it, a part of the balance like Yin and Yang. And respect for the missed one and, in a way, for all the deads.
(4) In a research on what different cultures around the world think about death, we’d like to take you on a etymological tour that is the start of a re-designed 21st century funeral.
(5) In Japan, WABI-SABI is a therm that expresses the acceptance of the natural cycle of growth and decay. It is an aesthetic term that refers to the beauty of „patina“ or „usage“ over brand new.
(6) In ancient Greek, LETHE is a river underworld that, when drunk from, made souls forget the sufferings of life.
(7) In Old English, DUSTSCEAWUNG (literally „contemplation of the dust“), is a reflection on former civilizations and peoples, and on the knowledge that all things will turn to dust.
(8) In French, SILLAGE refers to the scent that lingers in air, the trail left in water, the impression made in space after something or someone has been gone; the trace of someone’s perfume.
(9) In Welsch, HIRAETH means the homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past.
(10) In the hebraic world, MIZPAH is the deep emotional bond between people, especially those separated by distance or death.
(11) While in German, KUMMERSPECK is the excess weight gained from emotional overeating. Literally, grief bacon.
(12) In Portugiese-speaking countries, especially Brasil, SAUDADE is „the love the remains“: a nostalgic longing to be near again to something or someone that is distant.
(13) Taking into consideration the various rituals around the world and the most deepest human needs for a funeral goodbye to their loved ones, we have had fun in re-designing ceremonies and are happy to exhibit them for your pleasure. 

SEED (Marilia Afxentiou, Louis Bruno Bindernagel, Hannah Möser, Mizu Sugai, Yannik Rohloff, Cindy Valdez, Patricia Wagner)

CONNECT (Ruth Biene, Jasmin Erb, Tal Golan Hazan, Jan Janas, Abena Karhan, Ivana Kolak, Pablo Martinez, Yasemin Ozkaynak, Momme Ries, Tim Süßbauer, Vi Nghiem Tuong)

OGS / OPEN GRIEF SPACE (Zoe Agathos, Louis Bruno Bindernagel, Forough Fami, Nikko Forteza Rumpf, Julius Führer, Grete Smitaite, Eicke Arved Zinke)

Concept and Supervision:
GastProf. Susanne Stauch, IPP, UdK
Virginie Gailing, Strategic Design & REDEATH.ORG
Sabine Schneider, Fashion/Costumedesign & Dance Pedagogy

with students from GWK, Product, Fashion, Art, Costume, Choreography/Dance, Musical/Show
Marilia Afxentiou, Zoe Agathos, Ruth Biene, Louis Bruno Bindernagel, Jasmin Erb, Forough Fami, Nikko Forteza Rumpf, Julius Führer, Tal Golan Hazan, Jan Janas, Abena Karhan, Ivana Kolak, Pablo Martinez, Hannah Möser, Vi Nghiem Tuong, Yasemen Ozkaynak, Momme Ries, Yannik Rohloff, Grete Smitaite, Mizu Sugai, Tim Süßbauer, Cindy Valdez, Patricia Wagner, Eicke Arved Zinke