Under the motto Design for Democracy. Atmospheres for a better life, we will create a platform for societal transformation through design in the Frankfurt RheinMain region – sustainably and participatively. Initiatives and projects will be developed to improve our quality of living together, strengthen regional cohesion and enhance democracy – extending beyond the project year 2026. We focus on ten fields of action to address major challenges of our time. These fields are intended to provide structure and are to be understood as categories, they may overlap or stand side by side.
We consider topics such as diversity, integration and inclusion, participation and sustainability as well as innovation, digitisation and AI to be cross-cutting issues that should be present in all fields of action. Below are the ten fields of action, each described in detail with examples that we are enthusiastic about and with which we want to inspire you. This catalogue will gradually grow, supplemented by you and us, aiming to showcase a separate catalogue of successful examples from the RheinMain region by 2026.
The fields of action are:
It’s important to mention at this point that we are not in contact with any of these projects and examples; they are deliberately not from the RheinMain region. In addition, some of the projects and processes mentioned are large-scale and require a much longer implementation period than the duration of the World Design Capital 2026. In our → Open Call 2024 small stand-alone projects, individual events or other small-scale actions from larger processes can therefore also be submitted. (as of July 2024)
Work
How do we want to work together in the future?
Digitalisation and the pandemic have greatly accelerated the transformation of our working world. New needs of workers and diverse working time and workplace models require visions for new workspaces and communities in both urban and rural areas. Innovative solutions and model projects that develop functionally mixed and shared workplaces and neighbourhoods can intensify the reuse of existing buildings and save time and emissions through short distances. Moreover, work processes, administration and digital infrastructures contribute to ensuring that we feel comfortable in our working environment, enable equal access for all and stay healthy. Self-employment, flexibility, community and participation are important aspects of tomorrow’s work and therefore life.
Examples:
→ ZIRKA – Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Raum- und Kulturarbeit, München
→ DigitalService, Berlin
→ Haus der Materialisierung, Berlin
Building & Living
Affordable, sustainable and future-proof!
Resource-conserving, serial and circular construction as well as a sustainable land policy play an important role in shaping the way we live together. Research into new materials and the testing of re-use options for waste products and components offer a further field for experimentation. Instead of the credo “build, build, build”, we need to prioritise the (re)use and repurposing of our existing buildings to create affordable housing. Innovative solutions for communal living can offer scalable and flexible incentives for various user groups and thus create quality of life for everyone.
Examples:
Education
Lifelong and participatory learning and teaching
Education is a crucial lever for enabling a good life for everyone and strengthening our democracy. Only when we have included everyone, from young to old, can we bring about significant changes. The focus of education is on lifelong learning and teaching, research and experimentation. Despite the wide range of digital media, learning together in a physical space is fundamentally more inclusive, lasting and promising. This also involves learning about civic participation and recognising and seizing opportunities to engage in political and public participation processes. This equally applies to empowering decision-makers and politicians to recognise and embrace their formative roles.
Examples:
→ überkochen e.V. - Gemeinsam Kochen und Lernen im Unterricht, München
→ Studiengruppe Informationsdesign Burg Giebichenstein, Halle
Health
Health and equal opportunities as the foundation for a strong democracy
According to Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every individual has the right to a standard of living adequate for their and their family’s health and well-being. This includes sufficient food and clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services. Inclusion and social cohesion can also make a significant contribution to mental health. It becomes evident that health is not just a personal matter but concerns society as whole and serves the common good, transcending all differences and boundaries.
Examples:
Industry
Utilising potential and promoting innovation
Despite ongoing digitalisation, material production, including craftsmanship, remains a relevant economic sector, and it is undergoing significant transformation. Many data centres and business parks are located in the so-called “Zwischenstadt”, an undefined and unstructured space between urban and rural areas that requires diverse design solutions. Additionally, the abandonment of inner-city industrial, port and military sites creates new potential for the restructuring and establishment of innovative, future-oriented industrial and technology locations.
Examples:
Consumption
Responsible decisions for social change
Every day, we can contribute through our consumption choices. Do we need new clothes or products? How often do we want to travel? These decisions have a significant impact on our environment but also offer enormous opportunities for individual creativity. Responsible decisions lead to more sustainable consumption. What we certainly don’t need for a better life are more things. Instead, we need new methods for recycling and reusing materials and products, more cradle-to-cradle approaches, as well as novel and innovative processes and products to enable civic participation and achieve the desired atmospheres. Particularly, the vacancies in our previously consumption-driven centres and inner cities offer an ideal playground for creating consumption-free “third places”.
Examples:
→ Kunststoffschmiede - Plastikrecycling als Manufaktur, Dresden
Culture & Media
Strengthening democracy through culture
Culture is the glue that shapes and holds our society together. Culture enables perspective shifts, connects disciplines and forms of expression and makes it possible to collectively experience what often remains concealed in everyday life and for individuals. Whether high culture or subculture, art, design or performance – the diversity of paths that can be taken in the cultural and media landscape is boundless.
Through their creations, cultural and media professionals can reach a broad audience, creating new spaces for discourse, negotiation and ultimately of (co-)creation. Additionally, new collaborations and networks with civil society actors enable more broadly based platforms, events and projects.
Examples:
→ Les Siestes Festival, Toulouse
→ Bundesverband freier Radios, bundesweit
Mobility
On the move for the world of tomorrow
How can future mobility be ecological, social and resilient in both cities and rural areas? This question concerns us all because transportation, connectivity and accessibility are not luxuries but basic needs. The transport sector, with its high emissions and pollutant levels, significantly contributes to climate change and burdens our lives with noise, hazards and high land consumption. For both urban and rural infrastructures to be designed in a sustainable manner, there is a need to rethink mobility and digitisation – cross all areas of daily life, for the entire society and in all forms of mobility.
Examples:
→ Ecopoint Frankenjura, Nürnberg
→ MCube aqt – Autoreduzierte Quartiere für eine lebenswerte Stadt, München
Public Space
Living and creative spaces for everyone!
In our increasingly dense cities and increasingly anonymised places, the enormous importance of public space becomes evident – as a place for exchange and discourse, togetherness and activity, or simply to feel part of a community. That is because practiced democracy takes place right outside our front doors, beyond the confines of our own four walls. The quality of life in our residential and working areas is directly connected to the design and use of our squares and parks, open spaces and green areas. These spaces are available to everyone, usually without conditions. The freedom from consumption, the possibilities for individual use and layout for sports, play and movement, as well as the quality of stay, play a crucial role. This requires diverse ideas and various usage offers, but also long-term commitment.
Examples:
→ Endboss 1:1 Experiment – Pop-up Platz, Hamburg
→ Operation Himmelblick, Berlin
The power of sports to strengthen community
Doing sports not only serves physical health, it also creates a sense of community! Engaging in sports offers the opportunity to communicate without words, to experience something communal without the pressure to consume and at the same time to develop a positive body awareness and a balance for one’s own psyche. Free and inclusive activities outside your own home also create a unifying sense of community in the neighbourhood. Sports therefore provide a good basis for further experimental and co-creative projects and processes, such as the communal use of public spaces, abandoned areas, rooftops or vacant properties for novel sporting experiences and connects people through shared exercise.
Examples:
Under the motto Design for Democracy. Atmospheres for a better life, we will create a platform for societal transformation through design in the Frankfurt RheinMain region – sustainably and participatively. Initiatives and projects will be developed to improve our quality of living together, strengthen regional cohesion and enhance democracy – extending beyond the project year 2026. We focus on ten fields of action to address major challenges of our time. These fields are intended to provide structure and are to be understood as categories, they may overlap or stand side by side.
We consider topics such as diversity, integration and inclusion, participation and sustainability as well as innovation, digitisation and AI to be cross-cutting issues that should be present in all fields of action. Below are the ten fields of action, each described in detail with examples that we are enthusiastic about and with which we want to inspire you. This catalogue will gradually grow, supplemented by you and us, aiming to showcase a separate catalogue of successful examples from the RheinMain region by 2026.
The fields of action are:
It’s important to mention at this point that we are not in contact with any of these projects and examples; they are deliberately not from the RheinMain region. In addition, some of the projects and processes mentioned are large-scale and require a much longer implementation period than the duration of the World Design Capital 2026. In our → Open Call 2024 small stand-alone projects, individual events or other small-scale actions from larger processes can therefore also be submitted. (as of July 2024)
Work
How do we want to work together in the future?
Digitalisation and the pandemic have greatly accelerated the transformation of our working world. New needs of workers and diverse working time and workplace models require visions for new workspaces and communities in both urban and rural areas. Innovative solutions and model projects that develop functionally mixed and shared workplaces and neighbourhoods can intensify the reuse of existing buildings and save time and emissions through short distances. Moreover, work processes, administration and digital infrastructures contribute to ensuring that we feel comfortable in our working environment, enable equal access for all and stay healthy. Self-employment, flexibility, community and participation are important aspects of tomorrow’s work and therefore life.
Examples:
→ ZIRKA – Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Raum- und Kulturarbeit, München
→ DigitalService, Berlin
→ Haus der Materialisierung, Berlin
Building & Living
Affordable, sustainable and future-proof!
Resource-conserving, serial and circular construction as well as a sustainable land policy play an important role in shaping the way we live together. Research into new materials and the testing of re-use options for waste products and components offer a further field for experimentation. Instead of the credo “build, build, build”, we need to prioritise the (re)use and repurposing of our existing buildings to create affordable housing. Innovative solutions for communal living can offer scalable and flexible incentives for various user groups and thus create quality of life for everyone.
Examples:
Education
Lifelong and participatory learning and teaching
Education is a crucial lever for enabling a good life for everyone and strengthening our democracy. Only when we have included everyone, from young to old, can we bring about significant changes. The focus of education is on lifelong learning and teaching, research and experimentation. Despite the wide range of digital media, learning together in a physical space is fundamentally more inclusive, lasting and promising. This also involves learning about civic participation and recognising and seizing opportunities to engage in political and public participation processes. This equally applies to empowering decision-makers and politicians to recognise and embrace their formative roles.
Examples:
→ überkochen e.V. - Gemeinsam Kochen und Lernen im Unterricht, München
→ Studiengruppe Informationsdesign Burg Giebichenstein, Halle
Health
Health and equal opportunities as the foundation for a strong democracy
According to Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every individual has the right to a standard of living adequate for their and their family’s health and well-being. This includes sufficient food and clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services. Inclusion and social cohesion can also make a significant contribution to mental health. It becomes evident that health is not just a personal matter but concerns society as whole and serves the common good, transcending all differences and boundaries.
Examples:
Industry
Utilising potential and promoting innovation
Despite ongoing digitalisation, material production, including craftsmanship, remains a relevant economic sector, and it is undergoing significant transformation. Many data centres and business parks are located in the so-called “Zwischenstadt”, an undefined and unstructured space between urban and rural areas that requires diverse design solutions. Additionally, the abandonment of inner-city industrial, port and military sites creates new potential for the restructuring and establishment of innovative, future-oriented industrial and technology locations.
Examples:
Consumption
Responsible decisions for social change
Every day, we can contribute through our consumption choices. Do we need new clothes or products? How often do we want to travel? These decisions have a significant impact on our environment but also offer enormous opportunities for individual creativity. Responsible decisions lead to more sustainable consumption. What we certainly don’t need for a better life are more things. Instead, we need new methods for recycling and reusing materials and products, more cradle-to-cradle approaches, as well as novel and innovative processes and products to enable civic participation and achieve the desired atmospheres. Particularly, the vacancies in our previously consumption-driven centres and inner cities offer an ideal playground for creating consumption-free “third places”.
Examples:
→ Kunststoffschmiede - Plastikrecycling als Manufaktur, Dresden
Culture & Media
Strengthening democracy through culture
Culture is the glue that shapes and holds our society together. Culture enables perspective shifts, connects disciplines and forms of expression and makes it possible to collectively experience what often remains concealed in everyday life and for individuals. Whether high culture or subculture, art, design or performance – the diversity of paths that can be taken in the cultural and media landscape is boundless.
Through their creations, cultural and media professionals can reach a broad audience, creating new spaces for discourse, negotiation and ultimately of (co-)creation. Additionally, new collaborations and networks with civil society actors enable more broadly based platforms, events and projects.
Examples:
→ Les Siestes Festival, Toulouse
→ Bundesverband freier Radios, bundesweit
Mobility
On the move for the world of tomorrow
How can future mobility be ecological, social and resilient in both cities and rural areas? This question concerns us all because transportation, connectivity and accessibility are not luxuries but basic needs. The transport sector, with its high emissions and pollutant levels, significantly contributes to climate change and burdens our lives with noise, hazards and high land consumption. For both urban and rural infrastructures to be designed in a sustainable manner, there is a need to rethink mobility and digitisation – cross all areas of daily life, for the entire society and in all forms of mobility.
Examples:
→ Ecopoint Frankenjura, Nürnberg
→ MCube aqt – Autoreduzierte Quartiere für eine lebenswerte Stadt, München
Public Space
Living and creative spaces for everyone!
In our increasingly dense cities and increasingly anonymised places, the enormous importance of public space becomes evident – as a place for exchange and discourse, togetherness and activity, or simply to feel part of a community. That is because practiced democracy takes place right outside our front doors, beyond the confines of our own four walls. The quality of life in our residential and working areas is directly connected to the design and use of our squares and parks, open spaces and green areas. These spaces are available to everyone, usually without conditions. The freedom from consumption, the possibilities for individual use and layout for sports, play and movement, as well as the quality of stay, play a crucial role. This requires diverse ideas and various usage offers, but also long-term commitment.
Examples:
→ Endboss 1:1 Experiment – Pop-up Platz, Hamburg
→ Operation Himmelblick, Berlin
The power of sports to strengthen community
Doing sports not only serves physical health, it also creates a sense of community! Engaging in sports offers the opportunity to communicate without words, to experience something communal without the pressure to consume and at the same time to develop a positive body awareness and a balance for one’s own psyche. Free and inclusive activities outside your own home also create a unifying sense of community in the neighbourhood. Sports therefore provide a good basis for further experimental and co-creative projects and processes, such as the communal use of public spaces, abandoned areas, rooftops or vacant properties for novel sporting experiences and connects people through shared exercise.
Examples:
