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Professor Hartmut Ginnow-Merkert about the project |
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| Project definition: In today's global market situation design competence is shifting towards Asia (China, etc.) along with manufacturing. Designers in the Western World have to realize that it would be a catastrophic mistake to believe in their ever-lasting superiority as design service providers. How should designers in western Europe position themselves? Is there anything we do better than our Asian competitors? What could be a survival strategy? |
In this context, student participants will develop
design concepts for the Chinese markets. After intensive preparation
- including an introductory Chinese-language course - the group
travelled to Taiwan and China where the participants will develop
their design concepts along with their Chinese counterparts. The final concepts will be presented at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Open House (July 16/17), along with an explanation of the Chinese symbols and their cultural backgrounds that serve as archetypes. Visit Professor Ginnow-Merkert's website ••• |
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The Berlin team |
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| Quite international and interdisciplinary our team consisted of 18 students from 6 different countries - Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Poland and Colombia. Among the group were not only industrial designers but also textile designers, communication designers, artists and even a psycologist from the Humboldt University Berlin. | For some of us it was the first long distance journey ever. But for all it was one of the most intensive experiences of our life. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Workshop in Taipei at the National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT) |
April 28 - May 8, 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The first stage of the travel was Taiwan where had a 5-days workshop
at our partner university, the NTUT, hosted by Prof. Cheng Frue and
the industrial design department. Our Chinese fellows have been studying
in the master course and were working besides as designers during
the day while the classes were held in the evening. Despite their
busy schedule we received an amazing hospitality that one can hardly
compete with. Everything was quite well organized by our hosts and
we quickly got in touch with them thanks to their open minded attitude
towards the project and our presence. Starting with a so-called international design conference with the title "Knowledge Innovation & Prospective Design" we spent the first day in Taipei assisting the presentation of Professor Ginnow-Merkert given in front of numerous students and professors from various universities all around Taipei. Some of us also showed up with their projects done in Berlin before our hosts introduced themselves and presented us with welcome presents. The following days the Chinese students showed us their city and introduced us to the Taiwan culture including some of their best kept secrets. |
As it was not just a tourist travel we spent a lot of time
on the campus of the NTUT. In the workshop we built up mixed teams
in order to gather information about the issue and create first concept
ideas. The Chinese counterpart was really interested in helping us
leading the project to a success. All teams found out a lot about
Chinese culture in general and its connection to their special field
of interest. After an intermediate presentation and the following
award ceremony where we received an official certificate we invited
all workshop participants to a party in the evening at the school's
terrace. Besides the visits of museums, markets, temples and many more places we also had the privilege of visiting two companies related to design: We saw the Philips Design studio and had a talk to a former Weissensee graduate who is now working there. Then we payed Asus a visit, one of the world's biggest manufacturer of laptop computers. Also welcomed by a German designer there, we took a look at the Asus facilities including the assembly line and the design studio. Visit the Taiwanese weblog ••• |
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Workshop in Guangzhou at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA) |
May 8 - 18, 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| After a great start in Taiwan we went on to Mainland China.
We arrived in Guangzhou by train after a short stop in Hong Kong.
While crossing the border we quickly recognized the difference
between the "two Chinas". A big welcome dinner was given by
the president of the Academy in the first evening. The next day the workshop already began. What we had experienced in Taipei could only be exceeded in Guangzhou. To every student of our team were up to ten chinese students. So the size of the working groups exceeded all our expectations but we knew that we would manage it this time as well as in Taipei. Since all was quite well organized there was at least one Chinese already in profession and speaking better English in each team who assisted in managing the work flow and translating between us and the other Chinese students. We all discovered that they were very commited to the work and they supported us admirably in the research. Thus we learned once again what it means to deal with Chinese tradition and we received valuable inspiration influencing our concepts in all parts. We had the impression that the pace was even higher than in Taipei while people seemed to be more serious about the project and less relaxed. Since the huge campus of the GAFA was right in the city we stayed in a guesthouse in a quite convenient distance to the College of Design. But they also have a new campus 40 kilometres away where all the bachelor students stayed. All the dimensions of the institution were revealed to us when we visited the new campus one day and learned that they plan to have more than 5000 bachelor and around 500 master graduates by 2007. Even a new museum had been built for student's exhibitions. |
The real highlight of the Guangzhou stage was a footbal match
between the Weissensee team and the GAFA students. It was well
prepared with own shirts and a real 90-minute match on the
football field of GAFA. After a reasonable 4:4 we were all happy
having joined such a great and funny event. Before the last days were off for visits all teams represented their work in the big auditorium of the Academy in front of a huge audience. It took double time for all speakers had to be translated into Chinese. But the result was exceeding everything we had expected from this workshop. In the evening our Guangzhou fellows gave a party (with the presentation of another certificate) and rocked the dancefloor. Their hospitality culminated with a flood of presents like fans, stamps where our Chinese names had been engraved and much more particular recognitions. Like in Taipei our schedule included also various visits to design companies in Guangzhou. We went to DAYE design, UTOP design where we witnessed by coincidence the traditional opening ceremony of another company and finally the Jimei design group which is now one of the biggest design companies in China. Among several other visits we had to cancel one day since there was a typhoon expected which then fortunately didn't reach the city. On our return to Hong Kong we stopped by in Shenzhen to visit the ELV factory where all electronic components for the German supplier Conrad Electronics are produced. There we got another deep impression what the term "factory of the world" really means. Crossing the border to Hong Kong we all were looking forward to spend a couple of days in one of the most exciting cities of the world. |
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