WDC 2026 | Welche Welt woll(t)en wir? Vom Nutzen, Designwissen zu bewahren

Under the title “What kind of world do we want? On the value of preserving design knowledge”, 18 speakers from German-speaking countries as well as from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Italy, Japan and Egypt will come together on 16 and 17 October 2026 at the BraunSammlung in Kronberg im Taunus.

The conference is being organised jointly with the Dieter and Ingeborg Rams Foundation, the German Design Council, the German Design Museum Foundation, the Association of German Industrial Designers (VDID), the Braun Design Studio, the Förderkreis BraunSammlung e.V. and the Association of Business Archivists (VdW).

At its heart lies an observation that is as simple as it is far-reaching: the process of creating a design embodies many values, decisions and objectives that are no longer visible in the finished result. Yet, unlike in many other cultural fields, there has so far been no established practice for systematically documenting and preserving this process. The conference therefore explores what aspects of design processes are actually worthy of archiving, who bears responsibility for this, how analogue and digital designs can be organised across studios, manufacturers and external archives, and what standards might enable the archiving of design knowledge in a way that is both academically and practically viable. The presentations over the two days will range from fundamental perspectives on design theory, through experience reports from university, corporate and association archives, to international case studies – and will thus address, from two temporal perspectives, the question posed in the title: What kind of world do we want (or did we want)?

Society for Design History in cooperation with the Dieter and Ingeborg Rams Foundation, the German Design Council / German Design Museum Foundation, the Association of Business Archivists (e. V.), and the Association of German Industrial Designers (VDID)

Programme

Friday, 16 October 2026

09:00
Registration

09:30
Welcome by Prof. Dr Thilo Schwer and Dr Theres Rohde

09:45
Welcoming remarks from the cooperation partners

10:15
The design scene. Towards a design theory of the archive. Prof. Dr Oliver Ruf (Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences)

10:35
The Archive as a Memory of Problems. Peter Vetter (Coande – Communication and Design, Zurich)

10:55
Questions / Discussion

11:15
What kind of digital content do we want to preserve? Criteria for the collection worthiness of genuinely digital design objects. Tabea Schmid (Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences)

11:35
From code to design. Why software development in the age of AI must be complemented by an archival culture and a theory of design. Dr Kim Lauenroth (Dortmund University of Applied Sciences)

11:55
Questions / Discussion

12:15
Break / Refreshments

13:00
Design into the archive! Archive out into design! Dr Ulrich S. Soénius (Rhenish-Westphalian Economic Archive Foundation, Cologne, RWWA)

13:20
70 years of the German Design Council! And the archive? Helge Aszmoneit & Julia Kostial (German Design Council / German Design Museum Foundation)

13:40
Questions / Discussion

14:00
Design studies need design archives – the Dieter and Ingeborg Rams Archive. Dipl.-Des. Cassandra Peters & Dr. des. Hehn-Chu Ahn (Dieter and Ingeborg Rams Foundation)

14:20
The estate as a medium of recent design history: Florian Hufnagl’s private estate – between intellectual value and intended legacy. Karianne Fogelberg, RCA M.A. (UnDesignUnit / GfDg)

14:40
Questions / Discussion

15:00
Break

15:30
The role of the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design archive. Grit Thönnissen (Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design, Halle)

15:50
The Fascist Cup, or: Modernism Enters the Archive. HfG Archive, Ulm, 1987 to the present. Christiane Wachsmann (HfG Archive, Ulm)

16:10
Questions / Discussion

16:30
Between the Design Studio and the Archive: Student Design Processes as a Challenge for Collection Practice. Maren Weissig (TU Dresden)

16:50
Low-budget, high-intelligence: How open-source and AI are helping us to catalogue the life’s work of industrial designer Lepoix. Moritz Grenke (Louis L. Lepoix Archive e.V., Baden-Baden)

17:10
Questions / Discussion

17:30
VDID panel discussion: Resources, Spaces, Remaining Stock – Empirical Insights and Pragmatic-Ethical Considerations from Industrial Design. Moderators: Frederike Kintscher-Schmidt (President of VDID), Manja Unger-Büttner (VDID Ethics.Design Project Group)

18:30
Guided tour of the Braun Collection. Thomas Guttandin

20:00
Dinner

Saturday, 17 October 2026

10:00
Welcome

10:15
Guided tour of the Braun Design Studio. Oliver Grabes (P&G Grooming)

11:30
Design archives in the Netherlands: between fragmented preservation and sustainable futures – a critical overview. Karin van der Heiden, Director (Atria Amsterdam)

12:00
Design’s Archival Cultures. Dr Sue Breakell, Archive Director and Principal Research Fellow (University of Brighton Design Archives)

12:30
Questions / Discussion

12:45
Break / Refreshments

14:00
Kiosk K67 in Metamorphosis: The Saša J. Mächtig Archive. Maja Vardjan, Director (Museum of Architecture and Design MAO, Ljubljana)

14:30
Design Archives as Living Cultural Infrastructures for Democracy: the Olivetti Perspective. Gaetano Adolfo Maria di Tondo, President (Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti, Ivrea)

15:00
Questions / Discussion

15:15
Industrial Design Archives Project: an attempt to establish an information platform and manufacturers’ network in Japan. Keiko Ueki, Acting Director (Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)

15:45
Para-archives of graphic design: Archief Cairo and the politics of collecting visual culture in Egypt. Prof. Dr Felix Kosok (German International University Berlin)

16:15
Closing discussion