During November and December 2003, over a six week period, 12 intrepid Swinburne Institute of Design Students braved the German winter to take part in the German Study Tour program.
The Study Tour took place at the Fachhochschule Düsseldorf, University of Applied Science and the Fachhochschule Hildesheim – and incorporated a two week design workshop at each design school.
At Düsseldorf students worked in interdisciplinary design teams with German students and used the ‘Freitag’ courier bag design philosophy to develop new bag concepts using new materials, components and a new market requirement.
The Hildesheim project was more full-on Industrial design – students worked in small teams and presented to their German student hosts, a group of final year industrial design students. The project was to develop concepts for a product that meets the needs of the office power nap.
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Above: Two students working on their concepts |
Above: Bruno constructing his bag prototype |
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The cultural part of the tour – a week at the start and a week at the end of the tour included National Institute of Design presentations at the Fachhochschule Mainz, Düsseldorf, Hildesheim and Weimar. It also included visits to The Braun Museum and Archive, Darmstadt (the seat for a lot of German history and a source for design philosophy), Braun GmbH design studios, Wilkahn GmbH, VW Autostadt, the Bauhaus and a variety of historical sites, churches, castles, museums, towns and villages.
The differences in the former west and east of Germany was contrasted, especially in a four day stay in Naumburg (east) with an organ recital played on the ‘Bach’ organ.
Transport was mainly rail, from local trains, mountain rail buses to 240+ km/h ICE’s. Accommodation was in hotels and apartments with, thankfully, only one stay in a youth hostel. As for the food – students survived. Some liked the local cuisine and some took the easy option. There were occasions, in apartment style accommodation when students could prepare their own meals – seen as a plus!
Swinburne Students excelled themselves and I received a lot of praise about their design work, presentation techniques and polite behaviour. The German Study Tour was a resounding success, a great team effort.
Thank you to our hosts and Swinburne staff who made the Study Tour possible.
Lotars Ginters
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