We’ve rounded up the latest news from the Design Center Baden-Württemberg for you in this June 2022 bulletin. We take a look back at our anniversary exhibition 30 Years of the Baden-Württemberg International Design Award. And although the exhibition has now closed, you can experience award-winning product highlights spanning three decades in a limited edition publication.
Also this month: the jury of this year’s Focus Open 2022 international design award has now convened in Ludwigsburg and selected the prize winners. We look forward to congratulating them in person in October! Plus, RETHINK:DESIGN, our format for promoting a broader and climate-friendly understanding of design, has been rolled out and has some intriguing content to share with you. Let’s think the future!
Last but not least, our latest book tips from our Design Library are well worth a read. This time round, they focus exclusively on climate relevance.

Enjoy the ideas and inspiration! 

The Design Center Baden-Württemberg team
 

 

The catalogue in conjunction with the 30 Years of the Baden-Württemberg International Design Award exhibition has arrived and can be ordered via our website. The lavishly produced publication provides intriguing insights into 30 years of the design award’s history.

First come, first served!

Find out more here.
 

We’re delighted that our top-notch jury was able to evaluate the actual, physical products entered for the competition in person! It was an intense few days, with some very good design, professional exchange and lively discussions!

And once again, it was very clear that professional design has never been as important and so much a matter of course as it is today. The Baden-Württemberg state award Focus Open provides an annual and transparent roundup of what’s state of the art when it comes to design, innovation and sustainability. And in 2022, Focus Open is once again rewarding new products, services and concepts for their innovativeness and design quality.

The winners will be revealed on 14 October, when they’re called up on stage at the FOCUS OPEN 2022 award ceremony.

Click here for a glimpse of this year’s jury at work...
 

A lot has happened since we launched our new RETHINK:DESIGN Climate Relevance format a few weeks ago. RETHINK:DESIGN shows what impact design has on resource use, emissions, the circular economy and climate protection. 

In interviews, talks and workshops, experts present the complexity of sustainability and climate protection, point out paths to solutions and make the case for a change of perspective.

Click on the links below to access our previous content:



René Bethmann and Mario Schlegel (Vaude)

At its headquarters near Tettnang in Baden-Württemberg, Vaude has been climate-neutral since as far back as 2012. The outdoor brand is in the process of gradually switching its product portfolio to recycled or bio-based materials. We spoke to head of design Mario Schlegel and innovation manager René Bethmann about cooperation between technology and design, supply chains and the challenge of observing and evaluating innovations so as to ultimately get them off the ground with their partners. And: just because something looks sustainable doesn’t mean it really is sustainable.
Read the interview here.
 

Ottenwälder und Ottenwälder
“It’s really not that complicated!”

Can design agencies be climate-neutral? Yes, says Petra Kurz-Ottenwälder.
Read the interview here.
 

Prof Tina Kammer
“The future starts today!”

The transformation away from a linear throwaway society and towards a circular economy calls the design process used so far into question. To meet their responsibility, companies have to integrate circular processes – and design is a crucial starting point for that. To what extent can that help minimise the impacts on the environment and humans and give rise to a sustainable economic system? The talk by Prof Tina Kammer explores the opportunities presented by these developments.
Click here to watch the talk (in German).
 

Christiane Nicolaus
“Sustainability is driving innovation!”

What can designers contribute in terms of saving the global climate? A lot, says Christiane Nicolaus, director of the Design Center Baden-Württemberg. She also believes that climate-friendly design can result in a competitive advantage. An interview about RETHINK:DESIGN and a new departure for an industry.
Read the interview here.
 

VOM ETHOS IN NACHHALTIGKEITSBERICHTEN
Wie wird Glaubwürdigkeit visuell dargestellt?
Eine designrhetorische Analyse
Sophie Heins
Bielefeld, transcript Verlag 2022

Credibility and trust are key objectives in the communication of corporate social responsibility. Sustainability reports are regarded as the most important persuasive communication medium, although little research has been done into the role played by visual argumentation. In her comprehensive design-rhetorical study, Sophie Heins investigates which visual rhetorical means are used to generate credibility in sustainability reports. To this end she analyses the effects of the various design elements and their interaction, as well as presenting types of visual argumentation that permit a new way of looking at sustainability reports.



NON NOBIS – ÜBER DAS BAUEN IN DER ZUKUNFT
Band 1: Ausgehen muss man von dem, was ist
Werner Sobek 
Stuttgart, av edition 2022

We are not born for ourselves alone, we do not act for ourselves alone: what we decide and do as a society today reaches far beyond our own horizon, has an impact far into the future. In order to do justice to our common responsibility, we need cleanly researched facts and a precise presentation of the connections that exist between these facts. Only in this way can knowledge emerge.

With Volume 1 of his trilogy “non nobis”, Werner Sobek presents the first comprehensive contemporary analysis of his industry. A new standard work that forms the basis for building in the future. The book offers a global inventory of current trends and developments that directly affect our built and natural environment – and are massively influenced by the way we build: resource consumption and availability, building materials, emissions, energy, global warming, climate targets, population trends, and more. 

Werner Sobek is one of the most eminent architects and engineers of our time. He is a professor at the Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK) at the University of Stuttgart, initiator of the special research area SFB 1244 for “Adaptive Building Skins and Structures for the Built Environment of Tomorrow”, and founder of a globally active engineering and design firm with more than 350 employees. His goal: to realise emission-free structures for more people with less material.



ALL DAYS FOR FUTURE
Design for a sustainable everyday life
Chris van Uffelen et al.
Stuttgart, ff publishers 2022

Sustainability starts in everyday life: with the behaviour of each individual and the products they choose – all day, around the clock.

Getting up: What time? Brushing teeth: Which toothbrush? Dressing: Which pants and sneakers? Drinking coffee: Which cup? And so it continues on the way to the office, to sports, all the way back home: What do I cook with? Which couch? How can I charge my smartphone (which one?) in a more resource-friendly way? And finally, off to … which bed?

The book – a cradle-to-cradle product itself – provides answers to more than 90 of these everyday questions from the perspective of innovative and young designers. It shows how, in everyday life, choosing ecological and fairly produced products is not only a simple decision for the future, but also a way to improve the quality of life.