Design Policy Days
When Form Becomes Attitude
Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach/Main, Board of International Research in Design
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The second day of the Design Policy Days, organised in collaboration with the HfG Offenbach and the Board of International Research in Design (BIRD), explores how design can take a stand and why this is needed now more than ever. It combines project presentations on interventions in urban space with an international symposium. The focus is on design that is not treated as a service but as an independent stance, one that must assert itself in public space.
The programme opens with interventions in public space – both physical and digital – as a stage for democratic practice: projects from the WDC 2026 programme will be presented, all of which take a stand in urban space – ranging from the kiosk as a place of solidarity, through objects of resistance, to formats that make history and democracy visible in everyday life. Through dialogue between the projects and with the audience, the symposium will explore the potential impact of such interventions.
The symposium will then bring together international perspectives on a political understanding of design and create a space for dialogue around ‘Partisan Design’ – partisan design at the intersection of responsibility, engagement and transformation. The focus will be on questions concerning a politicised design discipline, new roles for designers in public spaces, and the need to understand design as a social attitude.
Key themes:
- The political self-image of design: Must design take sides?
- Interventions in public space: Projects from the WDC year
- The limits of the discipline: What design can (and cannot) do – between aspiration, criticism and precariousness
- Design and politics in the information age
- Architecture and urban space as a collaborative, political practice
Programme:
from 10:00 Registration
10:30–10:50 Welcome, introduction and organisational matters
10:50–12.30 Project presentations
12:30–13:00 Plenary session, conclusion, outlook
13:00–14:30 Lunch break [please self-cater]
14:30–14:45 Introduction to the afternoon session
14:45–15:30 Keynote 1
15:30–16:15 Keynote 2
16:15–17:00 Keynote 3
17:00–17:15 Coffee break
17:15–18:15 Panel discussion
18:15–18:30 Closing remarks
18:30–20:30 Drinks & networking
The event will be held in German and English, with automated simultaneous translation available in both directions.
Speakers
Tom Bieling, Prof. Dr.
Prof. Dr. Tom Bieling is Professor of Design Theory at the Offenbach University of Art and Design (HfG Offenbach). He is organizing and moderating the symposium, which explores how design takes a political stance when form becomes attitude.
Uta Brandes, Prof. Dr.
Prof. Dr. Uta Brandes is a design researcher, author, and chair of the board of the Cologne Art and Museum Library. Under the motto Shaping Attitudes!, she contributes her expertise as a pioneer in gender and design to the moderation.
Silvio Lorusso, Dr.
Dr. Silvio Lorusso is a tutor at the Design Academy Eindhoven, an author, and an artist. In his contribution, he argues against a purely logical-pseudoscientific project logic and advocates for a political design approach that negotiates compromises between opposing forces.
Marc Pfaff, Prof. Dr. des
Prof. Dr. Marc Pfaff is a visiting professor at TU Berlin. In the panel discussion, he will contribute his media-historical research on the genealogy of design and the critical analysis of digital technologies.
How to get to the venue:
