How circular is your design? That's exactly what we wanted to find out at the first Circular Design Clinic on 27 November in Hamburg. Our new event format focussed on practice: we dedicated a day to improving your product in line with circular design and the new European Ecodesign Regulation. Participants were able to benefit from the expertise of our co-host and foundation member Karel J. Golta (Indeed Innovation) and discuss with representatives from Lufthansa Technik, Tchibo and Johnson&Johnson as well as many other exciting guests.

When: 27 November 9 am to 6 pm
Where: Schopenstehl 15, 20095 Hamburg

What does the future of office chairs and co. look like?

Our regional founder meeting at ORGATEC in Cologne offered inspiring insights and exciting approaches for the working world of tomorrow. Foundation member Wilkhahn presented sustainable, innovative furnishing solutions. Its head designer Michael Englisch contributed his expertise with ideas for hybrid collaboration and new concepts for collaborative workspaces. The event offered plenty of opportunities for networking and ended on a high note at the trade fair party in Hall 9. We can look back on a successful event and are already looking forward to the next highlight in the foundation's calendar!

Bringing business models and design together with a focus on ‘Closing the Loop’.

This was the topic of the meeting of our Expert Circle Design for Circular Economy on 10 October. We were guests of our new foundation member Vepa the furniture factory. The Dutch office furniture manufacturer has been successfully focussing on the circular economy since 2008. Vepa develops 100 per cent organic and recycled materials and creates innovative business areas by refurbishing office furniture. The participants from various sectors - from the furniture industry to architecture and the plastics industry - openly discussed successes, challenges and next steps. A particular focus was on the EU Ecodesign Directive (ESPR), which will be adopted in summer 2024 and will create standardised requirements for a circular economy.

A visit to the printing workshop with the German Design Council

Are analogue printing techniques still relevant in the age of artificial intelligence (AI)? To show this - and much more - Erik Spiekermann gave our foundation members and invited guests an insight into the increasingly rare letterpress printing processes. His workshop is by no means a place of the past: he and his team repeatedly demonstrate how important spatial imagination is and that it is indispensable for designers despite digitalisation and AI. The analogue way thus forms a valuable counterpoint, which was also repeatedly taken up in the discussions with the guests on site.

We look forward to the next time! And hope that this special place will find the necessary support to continue to show us that some digital skills only have a solid basis with prior analogue knowledge. Friends and those interested in sponsorship can find out more here.

Photo: Ansgar Schwarz

Founded out of design

On 28 March, we honoured 40 years of success of our foundation member Serien Raumleuchten GmbH at the Museum Angewandte Kunst (MAK) Frankfurt, in the company of our foundation members and friends.

The objects not only reflected four decades of design history, but also an innovative design process, a large portion of passion and the very own signature of the two founders Jean-Marc da Costa and Manfred Wolf. We would like to thank you for the many interesting impressions we were able to gain. A great example of the power of design in entrepreneurship!