Today, the communication between different disciplines of knowledge is increasingly needed in order to improve the design processes of systems, services, and product development.
In this sense cooperation between universities, artists and corporate sector open new ways for creating a fitting, innovative and smart solutions by creating research labs. Together with Taishi Kamiya, a student of Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID), our resident, we focused our research on the Berlin-based actors in this area. Take a look at a brief introduction to the leading project hubs of innovative interdisciplinary processes.
Internationales Design Zentrum Berlin (IDZ) e.V.
International Design Center Berlin (IDZ) is one of the Germany’s leading institutions for design promotion. Its body of members include more than two hundred design-oriented companies, agencies, institutions and creatives working on the development of design products, processes and services in order to integrate functional, emotional and social aspects that are based on people’s actuals needs.
Website: http://www.idz.de/
Address: Am Park 4, 10785 Berlin
Bild Wissen Gestaltung
Bild Wissen Gestaltung is an interdisciplinary laboratory of the Hermann von Helmholtz Center for Cultural Techniques. They seek to solve complex problems through the intersection of the knowledge and skills of researchers from different fields. They have been researching fundamental design processes in the sciences from 2012. The Interdisciplinary Laboratory brings together the humanities, the natural and the engineering sciences, medicine, design, and architecture, with the objective to strengthen and enrich each discipline through collaboration.
Website: https://www.interdisciplinary-laboratory.hu-berlin.de/en/bwg/
Address: Sophienstrasse 22a, 2. courtyard, 10178 Berlin
Design Research Lab
The Design Research Lab at the Universität der Künste of Berlin works on interdisciplinary design research projects mediating between technological innovations and people’s real needs. Its team of researchers explores smart textiles, human-computer interaction as well as communities in our digital society, organizing its approach within four different research groups: civil infrastructures, social innovation, embodied interaction, connected textiles, and news & events.
Website: http://www.design-research-lab.org/
Address: Einsteinufer 43, D-10587 Berlin
School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe
School Of Machines, Making & Make-Believe is an organization dedicated to the exploration of art, technology, design, and human connection, giving a leading role to the interactive processes. School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe is a place for artists, teachers, technologists, makers, engineers, designers, or just curious and passionate people about creativity development.
Website: http://schoolofma.org/
Address: Veteranenstrasse 21, 10119 Berlin
Public Art Lab
Public Art Lab (PAL) is a platform of experts from the fields of urban planning, new media art and IT in Berlin. They encourage audiences to participate in the creative processes and experience their daily environment from different perspectives. Its projects aim to foment the community development, identity building, and communication among the citizenship.
Website: http://www.publicartlab-berlin.de/
Address: Brunnenstrasse 72, 13355 Berlin
Fab Lab Berlin
Fab Lab Berlin is an open digital studio providing all kinds of equipment for the design projects development: 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC routers, design software, and electronics. They are part of the international Fab Lab network and offer access to a professional DIY studio and a great community of makers.
Website: https://fablab.berlin/en/
Address: Prenzlauer Allee 242, 10405 Berlin
Hasso-Plattner-Institut / School of Design Thinking
HPI D-School is one of the main points of the Design Thinking teaching. Among its activities, the cooperation with project partners and the research and further development of Design thinking are the principal commitments.
Website: https://hpi.de/en/school-of-design-thinking.html
Address: August-Bebel-Str. 88, 14482, Potsdam
Dark Horse
Dark Horse is a consultation agency formed by 30 co-founders from 25 different disciplines. As consultants and coaches, they propose different working methods for the development of products and services to its clients from a totally innovative approach. Their activities range from Design Thinking, Service Design and Culture Hacking workshops to the design and implement of workspaces and offices for the accommodation of different modes of collaboration.
Website: http://www.thedarkhorse.de/
Address: Glogauer Strasse 6, 10999 Berlin
Native Instruments
Native Instruments is a leading manufacturer of software and hardware for sound production. Its aim is to develop innovative, fully-integrated solutions for all musical styles and professions.
Website: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/
Address: Schlesische Strasse 29/30, 10997 Berlin
PHASE XI
It is a project which has an aim to connect creative and cultural workers with enterprises. By pairing in 8 teams they together take on big questions like utopias of mobility, alternatives for bureaucracy, production and working models of the future, data storytelling, food and food delivery chain, common value systems. The 5 months working session foresees experimentation, search for innovation and prototype testing.
PHASE XI is a project of Kompetenzzentrums Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft des Bundes. The Kompetenzzentrum is part of Initiative Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft der Bundesregierung.
Website: http://logbuch-phase-elf.de/
Address: Jägerstraße 65, 10117 Berlin
VERTIGO – Boost synergies between artists, creative people, and technologists
VERTIGO promotes the arts as impetus and catalysts for a creative conversion of science and technology knowledge into new products, services, and processes. To achieve this objective, VERTIGO is organizing and funding artist residencies in R&D projects in the field of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and related application areas.
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (Partner in Germany)
Fraunhofer is Europe’s largest application-oriented research organization. Our research efforts are geared entirely to people’s needs: health, security, communication, energy and the environment. As a result, the work undertaken by our researchers and developers has a significant impact on people’s lives. We are creative. We shape technology. We design products. We improve methods and techniques. We open up new vistas. In short, we forge the future.
Website: http://vertigo.starts.eu/, https://www.fraunhofer.de
Address: Hansastraße 27c, 80686 Munich