Design Library

Design Knowledge That Connects.

Our Design Library has been a key resource for research and inspiration as well as contemporary and historical design topics since the 1960s. We make knowledge accessible, support in-depth inquiries and help everyone who wants to understand, study or advance design.

What Makes Our Design Library Unique

Our library is one of the most significant knowledge hubs for design in Germany. Since the 1960s, it has grown continuously, providing open access to international design knowledge – with approximately 20,000 books, audiovisual media, and around 40 international design journals. The historical periodical collection includes an additional 400 titles and documents key developments in design history.Thanks to careful cataloguing, rare publications from the 1950s and 1960s, and ongoing updates, the library is an essential resource for research, teaching, and anyone exploring design practice, theory, or history. Our location on the Media Campus of Hochschule Darmstadt strengthens our collaboration with universities, students and the wider research community.

New in the library

Anthony Dunne / Fiona Raby

Not Here Not Now. Speculative thought, impossibility, and the design imagination

Cambridge, MIT Press, 2025, 284 pages, illustrations

The authors, known for their research and publications in the field of speculative design, expand on this approach by moving design away from solution-driven thinking and towards understanding design as a medium for critical thought — a serious method for engaging with the crises of our time.

Beppe Finessi (Hrsg.)

Compasso d’Oro. ADI Design Museum. Historical Collection.

Rom, Treccani Libri, 2025, 1.040 pages, numerous illustrations

A comprehensive overview of the history of the Compasso d’Oro, Italy’s most important design award since 1954. With extensive illustrations, detailed information on awarded products, and numerous new essays by renowned authors, the volume becomes an essential reference on Italian design.

Grace Lees-Mafffei / Rebecca Houze (Hrsg.)

The design history reader

2nd edition, London, Bloomsbury, 2025, xxiii, 493 pages, illustrations

This revised and expanded edition brings together key texts from the history of design and design practice from the 17th century to the present. Organised thematically, the texts offer insights into design history and practice that remain relevant today. Questions of sustainability, gender, globalisation and decolonisation were already addressed in earlier design discourses.

Martina Heßler

Sisyphos im Maschinenraum. Eine Geschichte der Fehlbarkeit von Mensch und Technologie

München, Verlag C.H. Beck, 2025, 297 pages

In machines and technologies we project ideals of perfection, while perceiving ourselves in comparison as inherently “deficient” beings. The history of assigning superiority to machines over humans began as early as the 19th century – and overcoming this mindset is long overdue.

Hrsg.: Dorian Marjanović, Mario Štorga, Stanko Škec Cham

Designforschung: Die soziotechnischen Aspekte von Qualität, Kreativität und Innovation

Springer Vieweg, 2025, 211 pages, graphics

This edited volume offers a solid overview of the current state of design research, particularly in engineering design, while also providing perspectives on future developments. The discussions focus on issues of creativity, quality, emerging technologies and human-centred methods.

Gabriel Yoran

Die Verkrempelung der Welt. Zum Stand der Dinge (des Alltags)

Berlin, Suhrkamp Verlag, 2025, 185 pages

When products are optimised, even in minor details, strange solutions sometimes emerge that do not necessarily make them easier to use—the author calls this “clutter.” He examines this phenomenon in a form of consumer critique and also raises questions about the role of consumers in these processes.

Rarities „Techničeskaja ėstetika“© German Design Council

Rarities of the library

The library also contains numerous very special publications that are not only interesting for researching design history. These are, for example, the Olivetti Corporate Design Manual, the "Deutsche Warenkunde" from the 1930s.

Another special feature is the collection of the design magazine Techničeskaja ėstetika from the former Soviet Union, which is available from 1965 to 1988. There is an interesting article on this magazine and the library of the German Design Council by Yves Vincent Grossmann from 2017.

Why We Still Need a Design Library

Not all design knowledge is available online. Many important sources – books, specialist magazines and historical materials – exist only in printed form. They offer perspectives that remain vital for today’s cultural, creative and economic questions. Specialised digital databases for design are also not always freely accessible. That’s why on-site research remains essential, particularly for academic work or more specialised design questions.