Panel 2, which focuses on sustainability and futures studies in design, will take place two Lectures and three Discussion Sessions.

More information on registration will be available shortly.
Click here for the symposium program overview.

Lecture I

This lecture will be held in German.

Against the backdrop of current sustainability and transformation debates, this presentation explores how visions of the future are created in design and which values, aspirations, and conflicts shape them. It introduces the concept of Design from Discard (DfD) as an approach that critically challenges dominant circular future narratives. Building on the field of Discard Studies (Liboiron & Lepawsky, 2022), DfD understands waste not as the failure of circular systems or individual behavior, but as an expression of social power relations, cultural norms, and material inequalities. The presentation focuses on practices of discarding, sorting out, and rendering invisible as key dimensions of societal positioning and potential transformation. Drawing on a design theory of waste (Ritzmann, 2018), it discusses how alternative futures can emerge that rely not only on technological optimization but also on changing meanings, values, and everyday practices. Through a series of examples, the presentation presents counter-narratives to dominant sustainability visions and argues for a more critical and reflective approach to futures research in design.

Liboiron, M. & Lepawsky, J. (2022). Discard studies: wasting, systems, and power. The MIT Press.
Ritzmann, S. (2018). Wegwerfen │ Entwerfen: Müll im Designprozess – Nachhaltigkeit in der Designdidaktik. De Gruyter.

Lecture II

This lecture will be held in German.

This presentation provides an overview of Participatory Design Futuring, an emerging field in which designers empower diverse stakeholders to collaboratively envision and negotiate more sustainable futures through design. Central to this approach is the participatory development of future scenarios that are tangible, experiential, and emotionally resonant, thereby motivating decision-makers in business, politics, and civil society to take action. Through a structured creative process, methods drawn from futures studies, speculative design, and mediation support systematic and analytical engagement with multiple possible futures simultaneously. Using sustainable urban mobility transitions as a case study, the presentation demonstrates that residents’ competing concerns and conflicting visions for the future do not necessarily lead to an impasse. Instead, scenario methods transform conflict into a productive resource and a foundation for generating richer, more liveable scenarios. Various creativity tools further expand the capacity to imagine improved futures that reflect the realities of everyday life. This challenges the notion of a single, inevitable future and underscores that exploring, imagining, and negotiating multiple possible futures – a practice grounded in futures literacy – is itself a fundamental design task.

Discussion session I
This discussion session will be conducted in English.

The history of design can be understood as a history of technology transfer, in which scientific and engineering innovations are translated into products and experiences that shape everyday life. Rather than merely giving form to objects, design acts as a catalyst that transforms technological potential into social, cultural, and economic innovation. A contemporary example is additive manufacturing, which has evolved from industrial and biomedical applications into a medium for creative expression, as demonstrated by the work of Iris van Herpen. Companies such as Materialise have played a key role in connecting advanced research, digital manufacturing, and design practice. This relationship between technological innovation and design has a long tradition, exemplified by the Panton Chair, whose groundbreaking form was made possible by advances in polymer materials and manufacturing processes. Today, technology transfer extends beyond performance and efficiency to address sustainability and the circular economy. Designers are increasingly expected to rethink material lifecycles by enabling reuse, recovery, and regeneration. Materials research, bioengineering, and additive manufacturing offer new opportunities to develop production that combine technological innovation with environmental responsibility. This diskussion explores how design can drive technology transfer while shaping the sustainable flows of materials, technologies, and resources needed for a regenerative future.

Discussion session II
This discussion session will be conducted in German.

How are AI-generated image and information systems reshaping the conditions in which mediation, memory and learning take place? Generative systems draw on archives of human-made images, texts and cultural imaginaries. Their outputs then return to the same cultural reservoir. The issue is how these synthetic image and information environments affect the cultural practices that design enables, depends on and helps to sustain. Mediation changes when audiences can no longer treat machine-generated, probabilistic information as an exception, but must regard it as a basic possibility. Memory and cultural remembrance face a comparable pressure when the past is increasingly represented, reconstructed and extended through statistical models. Literacy and learning behaviour are also at stake. Research, writing and creative production are increasingly delegated to learning systems, even though these are among the capacities on which design and mediation themselves rely. The broader question is whether technologies trained on images of the past can generate new images of the future, or whether they narrow the horizons of designing, remembering and learning. It also asks what forms of design and mediation can respond to these shifts in a lasting way.

Discussion session III
This discussion session will be conducted in German.

Who gets to shape the future? We shape our world—and our world shapes us in return. Those who design technologies, products, spaces, or discourses also shape ways of being, relationships, and ideas about how the future can be conceived and lived. Design is never neutral: it is always embedded in cultural contexts and specific worldviews. Sustainability is predominantly conceived from Eurocentric perspectives and thus often remains trapped within the very logic that has contributed significantly to the emergence of the planetary crisis. The search for solutions then focuses primarily on technological innovation, increased efficiency, or “green” growth—without critically questioning the underlying power relations, worldviews, and historical continuities. Indigenous, local, and community-based practices, as well as alternative life projects, often remain invisible or are marginalized, even though they could provide key inspiration for other forms of coexistence. The planetary crisis is therefore not only an ecological crisis but also an epistemic one: Whose knowledge counts? Which visions of the future are considered relevant? And who is actually involved in shaping sustainable futures? This panel discussion invites participants to rethink sustainability and design from a decolonial perspective: Together, we want to reflect on the methods, attitudes, and practices needed not only to make diverse perspectives and futures visible, but also to actively incorporate them into the design process.

• Dr. Beatrice Barrois