Project Product Design 1.d

Semester 2 · 97155 · Bachelor in Design and Art - Major in Design · 19CP · IT · EN · DE

The course provides students with knowledge and skills on the operational approaches of work, methods and theories of product design for various fields of application with a focus on the use of materials.

Lecturers: Ingrid Kofler, Klaus Hackl, Camilo Ayala Garcia

Teaching Hours: 180
Lab Hours: 0
Mandatory Attendance: not mandatory but recommended

Course Topics
In the Summer Semester 2026, we will explore product design as a cultural practice, examining how artisanal knowledge embedded in artefacts is transmitted across generations and apprehended through careful observation, making, and use. The studio course combines research-driven inquiry, hands-on experimentation, and material engagement, enabling you to connect insights into the evolution of object typologies with your own design practice. Our focus is on vernacular artefacts—traditional household items, regional furniture, tools, and architectural details—as found in open-air museums and folk-art collections across our region. Crafted for daily use, these examples of anonymous design—many of remarkable beauty and ingenuity—bear traces of adaptation and refinement, shaped by scarcity of resources, local conditions, and pre-industrial craft traditions. Together, we will examine their form, material, and functional logic to see how historical solutions could inspire future design. Through close engagement with the collections at the Tiroler Volkskunstmuseum in Innsbruck and the Museum Tiroler Bauernhöfe in Kramsach, we will explore artifacts that inspire us and create detailed object biographies, tracing their material, production, use, and cultural significance. Through analytical drawing and full-scale reconstruction using appropriate model-making techniques, we will investigate proportions, construction strategies, and functional relationships, developing an embodied understanding of how material, form, function, and use are interconnected in the selected reference objects. Building on our engagement with historical artifacts, you will develop new product ideas that reinterpret regional craft traditions in a contemporary way. Your designs may follow one of three approaches: the evolutionary approach, in which key object features are preserved and further developed; the functional approach, which retains the original purpose while transforming the form; or the formal approach, which draws on existing shapes and opens them up to new functions. The goal is not mere copying, but the creative continuation of a design lineage, in which timeless principles are translated into the present. Museum visits, drawing studies, reconstructions, and prototyping frame design as a cumulative, historically grounded practice. We will consider products not as isolated outcomes, but as snapshots within longer lines of development, shaped by successive generations of unknown craftsmen. Through the study of artefacts and the transfer of their principles into your own design projects, you will position your work within this continuous process and actively contribute to the ongoing evolution of material culture.

Teaching format
Museum excursions and company visits, lectures, expert talks and discussions, workshops and exercises, individual and group reviews, guest critics.

Educational objectives
Knowledge and understanding have acquired their own project methodology in the field of product design, from the phase of planning to the phase of realisation of the project. have acquired the basic practical and theoretical knowledge necessary to realise a project in the field of product design. have acquired the basic knowledge to be able to turn a critical eye to their own work and to deal with contemporary complexity. have acquired the basic knowledge necessary for further Master's studies in all components of project culture as well as in theoretical subjects. Applying knowledge and understanding plan, develop and realise a project in the field of product design. be able to finalize the creation of an accomplished project in the field of product design, thanks to the basic knowledge acquired in the practical, scientific and theoretical fields. recognise the main phenomena of contemporary society, to observe them critically, also from an ethical and social point of view, and to elaborate appropriate solutions at the level of a design proposal/response. make use of the skills acquired during the course of study in the event of continuing studies in a Master's degree programme in the field of product design and to develop them further. Making judgements be able to make independent judgements for the purpose of developing their own design skills and in relation to all those decisions that are necessary to bring a project to completion. be able to make independent judgements, both in the critical evaluation of their own work and in their ability to use the right interpretative tools in those design contexts in which they will work and/or continue their studies, also considering ethical and social aspects. Communication skills present an independently realised project in the field of product design in the form of an installation, orally as well as in writing in a professional manner. to professionally communicate and substantiate one’s own decisions and justify them from a formal and theoretical point of view. communicate and present your own project at a professional level in another language and correctly in a third language in addition to their own language Learning skills have learned a work methodology at a professional level - in the sense of being able to identify, develop and realise solutions to complex problems by applying the knowledge acquired in the practical and theoretical fields - in order to start a professional activity and/or continue their studies with a master's degree program. have developed a creative attitude and learned how to enhance it and develop it according to their own inclinations. have acquired basic knowledge in theoretical and practical subjects as well as a study methodology suitable for continuing studies with a master's degree program.

Assessment
The assessment is based on: - Personal motivation, curiosity, and overall design skills as well as teamwork – demonstrated and actively applied by the student throughout project revisions as well as during all semester activities. - Quality, autonomy, and coherence of the design work – evaluated based on how the work is presented, argued, and communicated during individual or group revisions, the midterm presentation, and the final exam, including the project documentation. The project documentation also demonstrates the student’s ability to reflect on their design process coherently and integrate it across all phases of the project. N.B. ALL THE STUDENTS ATTENDING THE EXAM AS NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS MUST AGREE UPON THE CONTENTS WITH THE TEACHER AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEMESTER.

Evaluation criteria
The evaluation criteria for Product Design, totaling 100%, are as follows: A maximum of 20% of the overall score is awarded for personal motivation, team spirit, and the design skills acquired and actively applied by the student throughout the semester and during project revisions. A maximum of 30% of the overall score is awarded for the quality, autonomy, and clarity of the research and design work presented during the midterm presentation, reflecting the student’s ability to analyze, develop, and communicate research and design ideas. A maximum of 50% of the overall score is awarded for the quality, autonomy, and comprehensive development of the semester project, as realized, visualized, argued, documented, and communicated during the final exam presentation. The project documentation is included and demonstrates the student’s ability to consolidate and present their design process in a coherent and professional manner.

Required readings

Clivio, Franco (et. al.): Hidden Forms. Seeing and Understanding Things. Birkhäuser, 2009

Erni, Peter; Huwiler, Martin; Marchand, Christophe: Transfer – erkennen und bewirken. Lars Müller Publishers, 1999

Fehlbaum, Rolf (ed.): A Way of Life. Notes on Ballenberg. Lars Müller, 2023

Giedion, Sigfried: Mechanization Takes Command. A Contribution to Anonymous History. 1948

Grießmair, Hans: Bewahrte Volkskultur. Führer durch das Volkskundemuseum in Dietenheim, 2013

Kubler, George: The Shape of Time. Remarks on the History of Things. Yale University Press, 2008

Laube, Stefan: Der Mensch und seine Dinge. Eine Geschichte der Zivilisation, erzählt von 64 Objekten. Hanser, 2020

Lichtenstein, Claude: As Found. The Discovery of the Ordinary. Lars Müller Publisher, 2001

Menardi, Herlinde: Schätze des Tiroler Volkskunstmuseum. Zwei Bände. Haymon Verlag, 1992

Morrison, Jasper: Immaculate Conception – Objects without Author, in: Ottagono No. 118., 1996

Morrison, Jasper: The Hard Life. Lars Müller, 2017

Ritter, Arno: Einfach Alltäglich. Über Gegenstände und ihre Geschichten. Innsbruck, 2017

Terstiege, Gerrit: The Making of Design. From the First Model to the Final Product. Birkhäuser, 2010

Yanagi, Soetsu: The Beauty of Everyday Things. Penguin, 2018

Supplementary readings

Adamson, Glenn: The Craft Reader. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010

Benker, Gertrud: Altes bäuerliches Holzgerät. Callwey, 1979

Benker, Gertrud: In alten Küchen. Einrichtung - Gerät - Kochkunst. Callwey, 1987

Colwell, Chip: So Much Stuff. How Humans Discovered Tools, Invented Meaning, and Made More of Everything. Chicago, 2023

De Certeau, Michel: Kunst des Handelns. Merve, Berlin 1988

Farrelly, Liz; Weddell, Joanna: Design Objects and the Museum. Bloomsbury, 2016

Flusser, Vilém: The Shape of Things. A Philosophy of Design. Reaktion Books, 1999

Kufus, Axel: Einfach. Merve Verlag Berlin, 2009

MacGregor, Neil: A History of the World in 100 Objects. Penguin, 2011

Morrison, Jasper; Fukasawa, Naoto: Super Normal. Sensations of the Ordinary. Lars Müller, 2007

Morrison, Jasper: Source Material. Vitra Design Museum, 2014

Parsons, Tim: Thinking - Objects. Contemporary Approaches to Product Design. AVA Publishing, 2009

Rachewiltz, Siegfried de: Flickwerk. Flicken und Wiederverwerten im historischen Tirol. Arunda 88, 2014

Sudjic, Deyan: The Language of Things. Penguin, 2009

Welzbacher, Christian: Das totale Museum. Über Kulturklitterung als Herrschaftsform. Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2017

Yanagi, Soetsu: The Unknown Craftsman. A Japanese Insight into Beauty. Kodansha, 1990

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Sustainable Development Goals
This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the following Sustainable Development Goals.

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Modules

Semester 2 · 97155A · Bachelor in Design and Art - Major in Design · 8CP · DE

Module A — Product Design

The course should provide fundamentals, skills, working methods, theories and practices of Product Design in diverse functional and experimental scopes.

Lecturers: Klaus Hackl

Teaching Hours: 90
Lab Hours: 0

Course Topics
The project covers numerous methodological aspects of contemporary, multi-layered product design processes: - from raising initial questions to developing a critical problem awareness. - from inspiration to decision-making. - from hypothetical assumptions to the formulation of coherent design concepts. - from research to ideation. - from sketching to technical drawing. - from the creation of models to final prototypes. - from project presentation to project communication. - from project planning to project documentation.

Teaching format
Museum excursions and company visits, lectures, expert talks and discussions, workshops and exercises, individual and group reviews, guest critics.