Design research understands design not merely as a formal or functional practice, but as a distinct form of knowledge production. Within this process, making and observing, experimenting and reflecting are inextricably connected and evolve through an interplay of material practice, experimental inquiry, and critical contextualization. In teaching and research, we create spaces in which such processes and practices can be collectively explored, discussed, and further developed.
Design is a practice of exploring, developing, and testing. It is concerned not only with the design of objects, functions, and systems, but also with the social relations and cultural experiences that emerge, are mediated, and are transformed through them. Design therefore means engaging with broader societal questions and fundamentally examining the processes and conditions through which things are made and come into being. We therefore understand design not as a conclusive endeavour, but as an open-ended process of thinking and making. Accordingly, design research and design science investigate how new insights and forms of knowledge emerge within such processes. Designing itself thus becomes an epistemic practice: through models and methods, through experiments and experience, conceptual questions are explored, methodological assumptions are challenged, and new theoretical perspectives are opened up. Design and research (and vice versa) are therefore inextricably entangled and constitute the programmatic nucleus of the professorship.
Of particular importance are empirically and materially grounded approaches and situated perspectives. Experimental setups and procedures, prototypical objects and tools each possess their own codes, properties, and potentials for action—and they structure knowledge, perception, and behavior. In our projects, we ask through which material, medial, and experimental forms knowledge and insight are modeled and manifested, and how these forms can confirm, unsettle, or transform existing theories and epistemes. The resulting commitment to practice-oriented as well as “investigative” design research is therefore directed toward exploring fundamental epistemological and theories-of-knowledge relationships, cultural situatedness, and mechanisms of social impact, while opening up design research to a wide range of theoretical, methodological, and praxeological directions.
At the same time, digital technologies are fundamentally transforming the conditions and processes of design research and design studies. Data, algorithms, and robotics, and above all artificial intelligence and networked systems, not only expand the design-related and technical-functional possibilities, but also transform the processes of research themselves. We are therefore interested not only in what can be designed with digital technologies, but also in what forms of knowledge and action emerge, are displaced, or become invisible through them.
Our understanding of research does not follow rigidly prescribed formulas. Methods are developed, adapted, and called into question. We combine theoretical reflection with practical experience, empirical observation with material exploration, and technical knowledge with cultural reflection and analysis. For us, pluridisciplinarity means bringing different epistemic perspectives into relation with one another and developing new forms of research, experimentation, and exploration from this interplay.
We understand teaching and research as a shared practice of questioning, making, reflecting, and discussing. Students should not primarily adopt preconditioned answers and methods, but rather formulate their own questions, develop positions, and test them through both design and scholarly reflection. We therefore understand our work as an open experimental setup. Experimental arrangements and prototypes, as well as interaction and interpretation, may take detours and may fail. It is precisely where theories appear speculative, materials resist, technical systems behave differently than expected, or an experiment gives rise to new questions that new knowledge can emerge. Our laboratory culture creates a shared space for thinking and making. It brings together designing, researching, and discussing, and fosters the development of individual scholarly approaches and perspectives. The aim is not to impart a particular understanding of science, but to develop the ability to understand design as a research-driven, knowledge-producing, and socially consequential practice – and to cultivate the courage to rethink this practice again and again.
