Design Policy Days

Dissent Needs Design

On 12 November, the second day of the Design Policy Days will take the form of a symposium in Offenbach entitled When Form Becomes Attitude, exploring how design can take a stand – and why this is needed now more than ever.

International perspectives on a political understanding of design will come together here, creating a space for dialogue on “Partisan Design” – design that takes a stand at the intersection of responsibility, commitment and transformation. The focus is on questions regarding a politicised design discipline, new roles for designers in the public sphere, and the need to understand design as a social attitude.

Contributors:

Prof. Dr. Tatjana Schneider, Hermine Poschmann [Sea Rescue Life Line], Prof. Dr. Peter Friedrich Stephan, Noemi Biasseton, Silvio Lorusso, Maziar Rezai [Object Oriented Democracy], Nila Rezai [Crafted Liberation], Designer’s Union

Key topics:

• Design’s political self-understanding (“Design taking a stand”)
• Partisan Design: Stance, Responsibility and Transformation
• Design as a social and political practice
• New roles for designers in the public sphere
• Activism, engagement and ethics in design
• Design between critique, intervention and institutional integration

Workshop Programme

Partisan Spaces: Interventions in Public Space
Thursday is dedicated to public space as a stage for democratic practice: interventions from the WDC programme that take a stance in urban space will be presented—from the kiosk as a place of solidarity and objects of resistance to formats that make history and democracy visible in everyday life. Through dialogue between the projects and with the audience, we will explore what such interventions can achieve.

For further information and enquiries: felix.kosok@wdc2026.org