As a design educator, researcher, and practicing designer, I see teaching as a dynamic exchange—an open space for mutual learning, experimentation, and transformation. My work bridges theory and practice, academia and the public sphere, design processes and social realities. I believe that design is far more than a tool for problem-solving: it is a critical, imaginative, and political practice capable of shaping futures, making invisible systems visible, and engaging with urgent ecological and societal questions.
In my teaching, I create environments that encourage curiosity, critical reflection, and interdisciplinary thinking. I support students in developing their own design language and in cultivating key competencies such as visual storytelling, material and conceptual experimentation, collaborative practice, and the ability to make complex processes legible and accessible. Design is not about delivering fixed solutions, but about engaging with open-ended processes—welcoming uncertainty, friction, and the unexpected as productive forces.
A central element of my approach is the act of making itself—understood as a form of poiesis: a situated, transformative, and knowledge-generating practice. I believe that design thinking must always be grounded in material engagement.
Through making, we do not merely apply knowledge—we produce it. This embodied, process-oriented approach to design allows for new forms of understanding to emerge, especially in times marked by complexity and transition.
My design research explores these dimensions further by focusing on the role of design in transformation processes, the potential of speculative and participatory methods, and the epistemological and relational aspects of design practice. As a designer, I work at the intersections of culture, sustainability, and communication, translating research insights into tangible experiences, installations, or interventions. These real-world projects feed directly into my teaching and offer students access to contemporary discourses and experimental settings.
Ultimately, I see design education as a catalyst—not only for shaping the next generation of designers, but for fostering the critical, poetic, and planetary competencies needed in times of uncertainty and change.
Professor of „Product Design: Project, Practice and Theory“
Department of Integrated Product Design / Faculty of Design
at the University of Applied Science Coburg
Department Webseite: www.integriertesproduktdesign-coburg.de/
Department (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/produktdesign.coburg/
Professor of Product Design: Project, Practice and Theory (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/produktdesign.ppt.x/