Malene Saalmann has been a research associate in the Department of Sustainable Product Design and Development at the Kunsthochschule Kassel since March 2025. She works in the Experimentale module in the thematic year “Transformations in Work and Economy”, which is offered through the laboratory for sustainability issues at the University of Kassel (SDG+Lab). In addition, she has been doing her PhD on strategic design methods and sustainable consumption practices in the field since April 2025. During her product design studies, she explored the relationship between people and objects with a focus on consumer behavior and the design process. She worked as a freelance author for form, among others, and was involved in various collectives such as TOKONOMA e.V. and is a founding member of Trafohaus. In 2019 she graduated with a diploma with a focus on system design. From 2020 to 2022 she worked as a coordinator for documenta fifteen and afterwards for the Swiss bag company FREITAG as a creative concept designer with a focus on art direction and copywriting. These jobs were shaped by planning and communicating material cycles. She deepened this focus in teaching assignments for various disciplines at the University of Münster and Kassel.