CARE. A New Foundation for Design?
BA Major Design
BA Product Design Project
Winter semester
This winter semester we launched a project cooperation with the South Tyrolean furniture company rossin to explore the role of design in the field of care and welfare.
Care is not only a fundamental condition of our human existence, but also an important motivation for a sustainable and socially responsible design. Caritas, the active care for others in need, a basic principle of social cohesion, has returned to the centre of our attention during the Corona pandemic. In particular, caring for the elderly and the sick, the vulnerable and the handicapped as well as hosting pilgrims, travellers and migrants has become inscribed into the DNA of South Tyrol’s cultural heritage over the centuries. This is equally evident in the architecture, interiors and furnishings of monastery hospices and convents, pilgrims’ hostels and homes for the poor, peasant baths (Bauernbadln) and other traditional welfare institutions, some of which still bear witness today to the evolution of a distinctive care landscape in South Tyrol.
In the course of the semester, the students investigated this historical care landscape and compared it with the institutions that are currently dedicated to the charitable tasks of welfare in our region in order to develop suitable care concepts and innovative furniture designs.
