Designer, lecturer at the Institute for Pop Music at Folkwang University of the Arts, founding member of the international Gender Design Network (iGDN)

Gender, Design, and Sustainability – Clearing the Thicket

With its comprehensive dissemination, design shapes behaviors, values, and norms of users and entire societies, even without them being consciously aware of it. In professional discourse, good design is often characterized by sustainability, functionality, and user orientation, but the significance of gender is frequently neglected. Gender aspects and their effects are rarely considered in most companies, manifesting in both product development and various aspects of their operations, including processes, services, and corporate communication.
The issue is often dismissed as a feminist side note, yet gender design is crucial for shaping a fair and sustainable society. The presentation explores ways to address this and illuminates gender-sensitive examples from practical experiences.

Tanja Godlewsky is a designer and freelance creative director who designs solutions in the areas of brand and corporate design. Her work focusses on design and pop music, as well as gender issues in design. She communicates her interdisciplinary understanding of design and its responsibility in teaching at various universities and in workshops and lectures.

Architect, Professor of Accessible Design and Construction and Building Science; Head of the Master's programme Inclusive Design - Inclusive Architecture

Caroline Günther is a professor at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences in the Department of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geomatics. For many years, she has been working on the topics of inclusion and barrier-free planning and building, inclusive cities and healing architecture. She is a member of the office of the FUTURE AGING research centre and a member of the Frankfurt Research Institute for Architecture / Civil Engineering / Geomatics (FFin). Her research focuses on the spatial and typological development of inclusive planning, spatial perception, people and space, emotional spaces, demographic developments and building structures for living in old age.

Product designer, German Design Graduates Award 2023: Winner of the Inclusion category

Inclusion through Design

The designer, in Kühr's presentation, exemplifies design principles through her design process, illustrating how inclusive design can be achieved and societal participation for all can be promoted.

Juliane Kühr is a product designer who follows a design approach that includes diverse perspectives into the design process. For her, design is a tool that can shape a just and inclusive society. Kühr develops forward-thinking concepts that challenge existing societal norms. Her project "Vruit" reflects this approach: The sex toy provides an alternative to artificial insemination through medical assistance, especially for queer and single individuals.

Head of operational foundation projects, programme and funding series and Hans Sauer Prize, Hans Sauer Foundation

Can participation and consideration of different perspectives contribute to a sustainable and socially transformative society?

The social design lab of the Hans Sauer Foundation explores this question in various contexts. Among other activities, it participates in a research project focused on sustainable urban mobility in the future. As part of this project, a street in Munich was temporarily transformed to prioritize pedestrian and non-motorized traffic. In this initiative, the social design lab provided consultation on the development of the participation strategy and supported the implementation.
Barbara Lersch presents this process, discussing its challenges, opportunities, and the underlying considerations and theoretical approaches in design. Additionally, her contribution explores other projects of the lab with the aim of shaping society.

Barbara Lersch is a social innovator and focusses on the social impact of the underlying processes and their effects in various areas such as urban development, social architecture, social design and the circular economy. Her work seeks to build bridges between science and civil society, among other things.

Founder of KRDK | Kai Rosenstein Designkultur

New German Culture: Countless Dimensions, Plenty of HP, and Essentially One Goal

Sustainable, diverse, post-migrant, intersectional – the current cultural and societal debate introduces many terms that, on the one hand, hold high relevance but, on the other hand, often remain theoretically abstract. Nevertheless, what matters is how we can imbue these terms with substance and vitality. Drawing from his extensive experience in the theater, Kai Rosenstein offers insights into theatrical practices and makes corresponding attempts at classification in his lecture.

In 2010, Kai Rosenstein founded the agency KRDK | Kai Rosenstein Designkultur, which advises institutions in cultural communication. Undertaking similar responsibilities, he headed the Communication Department at the Staatstheater Darmstadt from 2019 to 2023. Rosenstein also works as a lecturer, speaker, and expert in the field of design and was the initiator of the "social design archive" platform. He is a member of the Deutscher Werkbund Hessen.

Photo: Nathalie Zimmermann