Studying Design in Bozen-Bolzano   If you decide to study at our faculty, you will undertake a journey that will not always be straightforward but will often proceed along alternative or side roads, because the terrain required you to. Thinking and working from a design perspective often requires a pioneering spirit because we do not have formulas, definitions and measures. How can you force innovative performances, troubleshooting and aesthetics into a standard? It’s impossible is the only answer. Designers and artists must be free spirits capable of thinking outside the box. Adaptation, standards and conventions are the boundaries in our profession and in our studios. We recognise them and make note of them, but the horizons are broader, and what is valid today will be superseded by the new designs of tomorrow.
Our Faculty offers an unusual mix of scientific analysis, a transdisciplinary approach to study, a solid preparation in art history and a large slice of creative practice. Our tutors come from the professional world or move, as theorists, on the border between the disciplines – being a multitasker, focusing on solving problems and acting accordingly are part of the everyday professional approach we use with our students during the three-year degree programme in Design. We have introduced studying through projects, which provide a high degree of synergy between the theoretical and the practical approach. The tasks that are assigned are very close to work undertaken by professional design studios and allow students immediate access to the world of design, which also fosters a high degree of critical reflection.
We feel we have a responsibility towards society, which is why we think of the future as a sustainable and careful observation of the processes in place. Those who study at our Faculty explore the processes and laws that lie behind the scenes. Our students are able to get rid of the now so they can freely think about how the material and immaterial world will work better tomorrow. Nothing happens by chance, everything is communication.
My maxim with respect to thinking and acting creatively goes like this: it is not particularly difficult to achieve good things, but the goal should be to create the conditions in which people can give up these things without suffering from that sacrifice. Something like this was once said by the sculptor Konstantin Brancusi, and I find that it fits perfectly with our times, times of great changes in which we want to participate.

Gerhard Glüher
Dean of the Faculty of Design and Art