The Design Investigations (Industrial Design 2) course at the University of Applied Arts Vienna provides students with experience in object, speculative and experience design.

School: University of Applied Arts Vienna
Course: Design Investigations (Industrial Design 2)
Location: Vienna, Austria
Course dates: October 2022 to June 2027
Application deadline: 28 January 2022

Design Investigations (Industrial Design 2) is an undergraduate design program led by the co-founder of Superflux, Anab Jain.

The course provides students with conceptual and practical training in speculative design, experience design, object design, world building, and storytelling.

Supported by expert guest tutors, students respond to a new brief each semester on topics such as artificial intelligence, the future of food, energy, and climate change.

Students also learn exceptional physical making skills, with access to cutting-edge tools and large workshops.

Past students undertaking the future of food brief have built a chicken coop for the department's chickens and also grew permaculture-inspired vegetables and mushrooms in the studio.

Experts from across the world come to lecture and teach topics such as artificial intelligence, filmmaking, creative writing and augmented reality. As part of the world-building semester, the department ran a two-week UnReal Engine workshop meaning students could build their own video games.

Our program has won research grants from Google's Art + Machine Intelligence Program, presented work at the London Design Biennale, and has been featured in the New York Times.

Graduates have gone on to work for companies such as IDEO, BMW, L'Oréal, FormaFantasma and Atelier Iris van Herpen. Many have also set up their own businesses.

Applications to this course have now closed.

Top image: Stress Suit project by students Sarah Franzl, Mairböck and Philipp Totschnig, who will graduate the Design Investigations course in 2024.

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