New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Initiative category

Identify the award category for which this initiative is being submitted
Reconnecting with nature

Email user
jasmin.schauer@skd.museum

Basic information
Initiative title
Design Campus

Full initiative Title
Design Campus / Decorative Arts Museum as part of the Dresden State Art Collections

Please provide a short, catchy description of your initiative to be used in communication towards the public.
The Design Campus is the Think Tank and Research & Development Platform of the Kunstgewerbemuseum as part of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Through its four pillars: the Museum, the School, the Lab, and the Network, the Design Campus is a space for recalibration and empowerment of creative practitioners to take action on the many changes, challenges and uncertainties of the 21st century.

What was the geographical scope of your intiative?
National

Where was your intiative implemented?
Member State(s) and Western Balkans
Germany

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
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Does your initiative address mainly urban or rural issues?
It addresses urban-rural linkages

Does your initiative refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)

Has your initiative benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your initiative won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Does your initiative has a minimum level of maturity? The minimum level of maturity is exemplified by stakeholder/ initiative promoter commitment to implement the initiative in practice and a clear methodology /approach.
Yes

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As a representative of an organisation
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project)
- Name of the organisation(s): Design Campus / Decorative Arts Museum Dresden
  Type of organisation: Other public institution
  First name of representative: Thomas
  Last name of representative: Geisler
  Gender: Male
  Nationality: Austria
  Function: Director
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: August-Böckstiegel-Straße 2
  Town: Dresden
  Postal code: 01326
  Country: Germany
  Direct Tel: +49 173 9617313
  E-mail: thomas.geisler@skd.museum
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
- URL: https://www.instagram.com/kunstgewerbemuseum.skd/
In case my initiative is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my initiative in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
through one of our cooperation partners

Description of the initiative
Please provide a summary of your initiative
The DESIGN CAMPUS is the Think Tank and R+D platform of the Kunstgewerbemuseum as part of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Through its four pillars: the MUSEUM, the SCHOOL, the LAB, and the NETWORK, the DESIGN CAMPUS is a space for recalibration and empowerment of creative practitioners to think deeply and take action on the many changes, chal¬lenges and uncertainties of the 21st century.
The DESIGN CAMPUS is a curatorial-driven, interdisciplinary, and future-oriented platform for rethinking the world’s biggest questions through design practices and culture. Rooted in contemporary global issues, in dialogue with historical and transdisciplinary knowledge, we hope to foster big, idealistic, systemic, utopian thoughts back into design practice, and to rethink the role of decorative and applied arts muse¬ums on the way. Our goal is to explore; searching for better ways forward.
We want to challenge the way we navigate the world, in all its complexity, charting a new course and a different direction.
The DESIGN CAMPUS summer program is a “School of Utopias”. It is a visionary design school set to explore complex problems, dream bold ideas, and collaboratively build new ways forward. Curated by different Heads of School each year, the curriculum will investigate a specific theme. The students and faculty will explore the research question through a series of workshops, lectures, talks, exhibits, and other public programs. The summer school will be a spring board for future projects in the museum, its environs, and its network.
Curatorial-driven, the LAB is an innovation laboratory and incubator promoting research, multidisciplinary studies, knowledge exchange, and the advancement of complex ideas and networks. The LAB will inform practice in the field of design and enable the development new strategies and special projects in the museum.

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with 5 key words.
Visionary Design Education

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Reseach and Development Platform

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Multidisciplinary Knowledge

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Global Issues in Dialogue

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Future Museum

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of sustainability and how these have been/will be met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
Pillnitz Palace & Park are home to the Design Campus and its Summer School.
The castle and its park are part of the Green Forum in Dresden. The Forum is an association of state and private institutions dedicated to the preservation of historical monuments and environmental research, which is evident here.
We are part of the Culture for Future project, which accompanies the creation and implementation of sustainability strategies in Dresden's cultural institutions. The museum plans to integrate multiple perspectives in its projects and activities, in order to enrich the discourse and inspire. The museum also wants to preserve knowledge in the long term, not only for its visitors, but also to guarantee stability for its inventory and staff through forward-looking planning.
Sustainability is therefore one of the most important pillars of our museum charter, both in terms of content and action.
The six-week Summer School in 2022 ("The School of The Untold" curated by Formafantasma) revolved around materiality and questioned its use in a wide variety of contexts around the museum objects.
A lab project in collaboration with the AA Visiting School in London dealing with Nanotourism concepts for the outreach of Dresden to create critical creative oppositions to the ecological, economic and social impacts of the prevailing mass tourism.
In practical terms, our programme strengthens the local infrastructure in Pillnitz / Dresden and makes use of the existing resources, such as the empty university dormitory, as accommodation for the Summer School during the semester break. Futhermore we work with a zero-waste catering serviece, who process local and organic ingredients in a residual cycle in balance with nature.
We likewise attach importance to the fact that our partners pursue the same goals.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
In relation to the redesign of the museum's permanent exhibition, a complete wing of Pillnitz Palace was renovated, which is now the premises of most Design Campus formats. Several workspaces, along a gallery, digital and crafts workshop, kitchen, library, lounge and the material archive extend over around 200 square metres.
The design duo chmara.rosinke (Ania Rosinke and Maciej Chmara) was commissioned to develop a series of multifunctional furniture and an interior that reflects the mission of the location. A counterpoint to the architecture of the early 18th-century baroque palace on the river Elbe, the former summer residence of the Saxon royal court, which is now home to the Kunstgewerbemuseum of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
Through selection of colors and coexistence of different geometries the space of the school and campus got a new identity. The furniture designs are accompanied by furniture from Magis, Hem and Flos and use Oskar Zieta’s 3+ system. Besides that a mobile kitchen is included to be able to cook and dine with a view on the beautiful garden belonging to the palais.
To create a special experience on Campus, we work closely with Community Hosts who are specialists in the region and the museum, but also experienced in networking around the world.
Based on the utopic ideals of the Design Campus, our network is inclusive, global, committed, empathic, and driven to recalibrate our route and creatively search for better ways forward. The goal of the network is to establish and maintain important connections with world visionaries, idealistic and pragmatic designers, curious researchers, interdisciplinary academics, progressive institutions, and open-minded practitioners with the ambition to rethink the status-quo and delve into the complex questions we need to ask to change the world.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
As a museum, but also as a ‚School of Utopias‘, we have a great educational mission that is inclusive and enables people from all over the world to dream bold ideas. There are many online formats that are free to register for, such as input lectures or museum tours.
In particular for the summer school tuition fees, financial support is indispensable. We have a three-part price scale, which includes the full price, the Early Bird ticket and the financial support that is up to 60% of the full price. In addition, we offer a volunteer scheme, where participants can volunteer at the summer school for a week and participate in a workshop for another week.
To ensure a diverse set of opinions, backgrounds, and voices, a scholarship scheme has been established with the Design Campus to break barriers in access for the summer school.
The premises offer barrier-free use.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the initiative and civil society have been/will be involved in the initiative and what has been/will be the impact of this involvement on the initiative
At its location in Pillnitz Palace, the Design Campus has created a central hub for its network to meet, exchange and learn. Just as important as the international partners are the local links to cultural instututions, the universities and the industry.
With the Dresden association "Wir gestalten Dresden" (We design Dresden), we have established regular meetings that bring the creative design scene within the city together around one table. In detail, strategies are developed on how design can be made visible within the city and which projects can be jointly implemented.
Our proposed programmes offer a further education support programme for local based companies. Such as the manufactury „Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau“ sends out their stuff trough a sponsorship.
Cultural exchange is always an integral part of the exploration of design and the dreaming of bold ideas. Through participants from all over the world as well as local creatives, a wide range of perspectives on current global challenges are brought to the table and lead to fruitful discussions on an everyday basis.
Every Friday at the Open Studio the civil society around the area of Dresden is invited to engange with the themes that were brought up during the workshops, exchange with the participants and museum staff, catch up and dance.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the initiative.
Since the beginning of Design Campus, we have been building our network by using the existing local structures and offering stakeholders in the region a platform for knowledge exchange and reflection. Furthermore, we are firmly convinced that the influence of global partners is needed to explore material histories, cultural worldviews, the relationship between tradition and local culture, critical approaches to ecology, colonialism, extractivism, the relation between human and non-human and the significants of objects as cultural conducts within our museum context.
The Design Campus Summer School is a curatorial driven programme, where different Heads of School each year are invited to develope a curriculum that investigates a specific theme. The students and faculty will explore the research question through a series of workshops, lectures, talks, exhibits, and other public programs. The summer school will be a spring board for future projects in the museum, its environs, and its network.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your initiative. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was
The Design Campus is a multidisciplinary programme that brings together professionals from all fields. Our biggest stream of visitors are, in the broadest sense, design enthusiasts. They find an infusion of historical arts and crafts and contemporary art in relation to design issues of the anthropocene.
Just as Jerszy Seymour in his Design Campus workshop "New World Progaganda" forms a band out of atrists, designers, poets and activists to protest, we also believe in leaving the conventional barriers in order to create something new. In this way, we provoke the participants to step out of their comfort zone to break new grounds.

So far we hosted workshops for the Design Campus Summer School by:
Space Popular, Gabriela Gomez Mont, Ramon Tejada, Amelie Klein, Vera Sacchetti, Basma Ibrahim Wagih Hamdy, Studio Nina Paim, Jerszy Seymour, Vivien Tauchmann, Héloise Charital (all 2021); Ruggero Pietromarchi / Terraforma & Sofia Coutsoucos, Johanna Seelemann & Heinrich Ehnert, Floriane Misslin, Giuditta Vendrame, Irakli Sabekia, Studio Plastique, Future Farmers, Buro Belén, Parasite 2.0, Martina Muzi, Armature Globale (all 2022)

Workshop tutors include architects and critical spatial practitioners; designers and design educators; policymakers and urban thinkers; artists, perfomers and activists. All work in different constellations and across disciplines in a variety of capacities. Together, we will work to question and dissect what is. We will go forward to formulate and test proposals and alternatives for what can be.

In other formats such as Lab projects, we gather engineers, scientists and designers to work together to explore ideas. The principle is to bring together the most diverse professionals from diffrent backgrounds in every project.

Please highlight the innovative character of the initiative, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the initiative
Almost 150 years after the Kunstgewerbemuseum was founded, in 1876, the Design Campus is bringing it back to its roots as a collection for teaching and education. Back then, the concept behind its foundation was a reaction to the upheavals of industrialisation; now it is being given a 21st-century revamp to address the social transformation triggered by digitalisation and climate change – as a site and school for utopian ideas.
As a museum, we have a high educational mission through the delivery of exhibition, which is mostly consumed passively by visitors. All Design Campus formats turn frontal teaching into a place for joint research and development. The doors are open for participatory research methods. We strive to be a hands-on museum by returning the pieces of the collection into educational purposes.
The aim is to show what can be learned from the past and which issues are important for the development of a society that thinks in terms of climate rights and circular economies.

Please describe which elements of your initiative could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and contexts. This may involve, for example, aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings, etc.
A museum is a museum, is a museum, is a museum, .... or is it? How would we like a museum to be, especially if it deals with design - both that of the past and that of the present and future?
This is the main question that guides our work at Design Campus and we always bring it to the fore.
The Design Campus programme is increasingly dedicated to the transcultural past of the museum's own collections and mediates research through workshops and laboratories on untold stories. We are questioning how images, forms, ideas and concepts cross perceived boundaries between cultures. As these global connections are uncovered, the history of Dresden and the world will also become intimately interwoven.
For our work it is important to ask questions. But not only questions that we ask ourselves, but also questions that others want to ask. The Design Campus is an essential component for all projects in the museum, to allow a diversity of expressions and multiple perspectives on our collection to be heard, discussed and made accessible towards a wider audience.
As Documenta fifteen showed, there does not have to be a single- curator for an exhibition, but collective works that embrace through swarm intelligence. We deliberately train cooperation in interdisciplinary teams in order to build communities and pool knowledge.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your initiative.
We do not work with just ONE method that can be described here. Instead, we try our hand at transdisciplinary knowledge. Each summer school has a different methodological approach: hence School of Utopias (plural). We believe in the diversity of approaches.

Just to give an example of methodology that has been used: The 2022 Summer School curated by Formafantasma stemed its categorisation from Gottfried Semper’s 1852 concept of ‘The Ideal Museum’. Based on his critical perspective of the Great Exhibition of 1851, Semper proposed a classification of museum collections constructed around materiality. His avantgarde concept, at that time, greatly influenced the ideological and spatial decisions behind many Applied Arts museum: one of them is the current Victoria and Albert Museum in London, another is the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Dresden, where the workshop will allow the participants to re-examine Semper’s proposition. His history is intrinsically linked to that of the city of Dresden, where he started his career and has built several edifices while teaching at the local Art Academy. Together with the participants and the museum staff, we will rethink and deconstruct the way objects are showcased in museums. The program will look at Semper’s ‘integrated view of universality’ by approaching materiality through technique, craftsmanship and industries that shape our environment.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the initiative addresses by providing local solutions
Democracy is under fire: the recent elections in Europe and the Brexit referendum have exposed the vulnerabilities of our democratic systems. However, the build-up to and aftermath of the 2020 US presidential election has made a broken system and a deeply divided civic culture even more apparent. While there are many efforts to "heal" the system, citizens no longer have confidence in the political system and are withdrawing to engage with it. And the system, which is by design, has failed the citizens."Design and Democracy" was the brouder theme of the first Design Campus Summer School, which will probe design and its involvement in democratic processes, exhibiting the social and political dimension of the discipline. Simultaneously, the program advocates a broader understanding of design, where the borders between disciplinary silos are blurred and design becomes a tool for translation and mediation.

With the Design Campus Lab project, Beyond the Garden: Plant Journeys, studio d-o-t-s aims at creating a culturally, ethnically, generationally, professionally, gender diverse and inclusive dialogue about the heterogeneous, and sometimes conflicting, relationships between humans and plants. Going beyond the museum’s walls, the project will involve the audience and partners in a multi-layered exchange around ideas like: plants’ displacement and collection; biomanufacture and biomimicry; plant-based design and ephemerality; local agro-industrial dynamics and reforestation policies.

The research project and exhibition “Spoon Archaeology” examines a vast variety of plastic spoons, forks and knives the two designers Peter Eckart and Kai Linke have gathered as study collections. As a reaction to the EU ban of plastic disposibles, the project became the official German contribution to the London Design Biennale 2021 (LDB). The installation raises sweeping questions concerning the tensions between design and the sustainable use of resources.

Please detail the scope of progress in the implementation of the initiative. This can include already demonstrated results/outputs related to the chosen Prizes category, and the already achieved benefits from the initiative for direct and indirect beneficiaries. This can also include a development plan of the initiative, with a particular attention to the steps envisaged in the year following the application, and including envisaged results and benefits from the initiative
The Design Campus as the research and development platform of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden has been a reality since 2020. Finising up the renovation of the space and implementation within the Museum, the first six-week Summer School in 2021 startet of with 12 workshops and 15 tutors out of 12 different countries. Under the titel “Design and Democracy” Amelie Klein and Vera Sacchetti investigated the complexity of political crises.
Followed up by the 2022 Summer School with 11 workshops, 16 tutors and around 90 participants from 21 different countries, Formafantasma challenged the museums collection with “The School of the Untold” by questioning museology and the historic legacy of the exhibited artefacts.

So far we doubled the number of accomplished Lab projects within the years: 3 in 2021, 6 in 2022 and 3 ongoing research projects/partnerships.

With this years third summer school named „The school of phyto centred design“ curated by studio d-o-t-s (Laura Drouet & Olivier Lacrouts) we start this season in investigations in plant fever in relation to the special exhibition of the same name.
Among other things, numerous lab projects take place, such as a Circular Design Challenge of the two Chairs of Structural Engineering and Technical Design of the Dresden University of Technology.

Read more here: www.designcampus.org

Please provide documents that demonstrate the maturity level of the initiative and commitment to implement the initiative in practice (e.g.: evaluation report, final or mid-term initiative report, certification, publications, building permit, grant agreement, letter of support, partnership agreement, etc.)
Both
PDF
- pdf-1-11963.pdf
Web link
- https://designcampus.org/
If relevant, please describe how your initiative contributes to developing new competences, especially in the context of the European competence framework on sustainability.
Design is an important discipline when it comes to forming a more sustainable future. In addition to the classical aesthetic education in universities, the Design Campus focuses on social and systemic issues and provides a practical, interdisciplinary environment for sustainability in local contexts.
With our open formats, we actively engage the research and innovation community in learning for sustainable practices.
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images or visual representations of your initiative to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below.
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By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed initiative has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the initiative and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their initiatives, initiative, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted initiative, initiative is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes