The professorship teaches fundamental positions, processes, and paradigms of design theory and research, with a particular focus on contemporary and interdisciplinary design cultures. The aim is to identify and discuss the various concepts, components, techniques, and levels of meaning associated with the design of our environment, to examine and to contextualize them from a broader cultural perspective. In addition, essential insight and knowledge of scientific research, curating, and publishing is imparted. Prospective designers acquire essential conceptual and reflective skills to foster expanded theoretical and explorative perspectives on their own work, and to reflect and discuss them critically.
Winter Semester 2025/2026
In the Winter Semester 2025/2026, the Professorship of Design Theory and Design Research offers a diverse range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary courses — ranging from foundational lectures, specific seminars and workshops, to methodology-oriented and research-based formats. The teaching program is aimed at students of all creative disciplines and stages of study — from bachelor to doctoral — and invites critical engagement with questions of design, its positions, processes, and contexts.
Lecture Series: Fundamentals – Introduction to the Theory and History of Design
The lecture offers a broad overview of central positions in design theory and history – from historical reform approaches, modern functionalism, systemic design solutions, postmodern disruptions and digital transformation to sustainability. It is open to students of all disciplines and forms an important basis for a comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of design.
Lecture Series: Digital Culture in Design, Media and Architecture
This lecture series examines current digital discourses at the intersections of design, media, and architecture. It focuses on topics such as artificial intelligence, digital materiality, robotic manufacturing, human-machine interaction, sustainability, the Internet of Things, and digital authorship. The lecture series is open to all students and fields of study with an interest in digital culture in design, and beyond.
Robotic Tectonics III: Design for Robotic Assembly – Negotiating Computation, Tectonics and Fabrication
In the Robotic Tectonics III academic module, students explore the design of non-standardized components and their robot-assisted assembly. The course combines digital modeling, materials research, and manufacturing technology and is conducted in interdisciplinary cooperation between the faculties of Art and Design and Civil and Environmental Engineering (Chair of Complex Structures). The results will be presented at the Winterwerkschau 2026.
Bachelor Essentials: Theoretical Foundations for Developing the Bachelor's Thesis
The bachelor's preparation module supports product design students in the conception and development of their final thesis. It teaches documentary, methodological, and reflective approaches to finding a topic, writing a thesis, and positioning one's own design work in a research context.
Design Positions: Paradigms, Processes and Politics
This seminar explores the cultural, political, and social implications of design. It discusses key design positions (including Otl Aicher, Bruno Latour, Klaus Krippendorff, etc.) and examines design as a reflexive practice between cultural significance and creative responsibility.
Digital Technologies in Architecture and Design: Theories, Methods, Practices
The seminar addresses the theoretical and historical foundations of digital technologies in architecture and design and examines how digital transformation is permeating and (massively) changing not only the design disciplines, their processes and practices, but also the living environment as a whole. The course offers a platform for critical engagement with the terminologies, methods, and cultural perspectives of the digital and is primarily aimed at students of the master's program “Digital Technologies in Architecture and Design.”
Lab Talks: Graduate seminar in the Ph.D. program
The Lab Talks offer a discursive format for doctoral students in the field of design. The focus is on the presentation and discussion of ongoing research work, the exchange of ideas on methodology and theory, and joint reflection on disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches in design.
Further information and dates for individual courses can be found in the course catalog of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.