Sustainable Product Design and Development

This field of study is dedicated to teaching and researching the production and reflection of design knowledge in relation to issues of sustainability. The aim is to instil in the design discipline a reflection on ecological and social consequences of its actions as design sustainability and to offer alternative scenarios for designed environments.

Teaching
The focus of teaching is on introducing students to methods of reflection and tools for critical and/or theory-based analysis in practical applications. The basis of the teaching approach is to recognize design practices as knowledge practices. In order to teach design sustainability, the department's teaching follows the cycle of perception – action – reflection and embeds it in a variety of (everyday) practices (e.g., discarding) as a criterion for discussion. In compact seminars and courses, an understanding of sustainability, in the sense of ecological and social responsibility in design, is made individually tangible for students and transferable to professional practice.

Research
Current research and discussions on the topics of the SDGs, in particular from discard studies, socio-ecological research, and design theory of things, form the network in which the department conducts its research. It pursues the approaches of design research and uses design itself to generate knowledge (research through design).

Research interests include

•    the question of how the design of education (didactics) can meet the demands of design sustainability and which educational tools and designs reflect the current problem landscape and can provide possible solutions;

•    practice-based design, its theorization and utilization in the context of socio-ecological research, especially in the context of consumer research;

•    rituals of disappearance in physical and digital environments; and

•    design from discard.

Kassel Institute for Sustainability (KIS)
As a member and interdisciplinary field, the department, particularly at the Kassel Institute of the University of Kassel, builds bridges between the humanities and natural sciences in the context of sustainability by offering new approaches (methods, perspectives, and objects) to address the problem areas of the SDGs and to generate and interpret findings. In the institute's teaching, the department is involved in cross-disciplinary courses (Schwerpunkt “Critical Sustainability in Art and Design”). In addition, the project “Transformative Teaching and Learning for Sustainability” (TORCH 2025–2031), which develops project-based learning for sustainability, is managed jointly with the core professorship Human-Environment-Interactions from the field of Sustainable Product Design at KIS.

SDG+ Lab Experimental “Transformations in Work and Business” (2025–2027)
Together with the Department of Economics of Urban and Regional Development (Prof. Dr. Anna Growe), the department is leading the Experimentale (experiential phase) in the SDG+ Lab's theme year “Transformations in Work and Business” at the University of Kassel. The SDG+ Lab is a laboratory for sustainability issues and a platform for exchange between science, business, and society, developed by UniKasselTransfer. The project is funded by the federal-state initiative “Innovative University.” The focus of the third thematic year is on transformations in production, work, and value creation in the city of Kassel and the North Hesse region. A range of decentralized, socially inclusive, and alternative approaches to a sustainable and circular economy will be highlighted, made tangible, and made accessible to large sections of the population of North Hesse.

BIOLAB
The BIOLAB is a work and research environment that offers students at the Kunsthochschule Kassel and the University of Kassel the opportunity to engage creatively, artistically, and scientifically with living organisms, primarily fungal cultures. The BIOLAB focuses on the interface between design and biology. Under the direction of the Department of Sustainable Product Design and Development and in collaboration with partners from its growing network, it offers transdisciplinary teaching and learning events as well as a platform for professional exchange. Workshops and lectures are held, and practice-oriented projects can also be carried out directly in the lab by arrangement.

The BIOLAB at the Kunsthochschule Kassel is the initiator and member of the network and the dgtf special interest group “Biolabs at Art and Design Universities.”

Student assistant BIOLAB: Alisa Röring