Exhibition Design – (M.A.)

At the joint Exhibition Design Institute (edi), the Department of Architecture / Peter Behrens School of Architecture (PBSA) and the Department of Design have developed an innovative interdisciplinary approach to teaching. This builds upon the Bachelor courses in Communication Design, Product Design, Architecture and Interior Architecture and cooperates in some points with the Masters courses in Communication Design, Product Design, Architecture and Interior Architecture. The Departments of Media and Business Studies are also involved. Know-how is merged in a linkage between research, teaching and practice, whilst new accents are set in exhibition, design and architecture. This honours the vision of Peter Behrens, who was director of the Düsseldorf School of Commercial Art from 1904 to 1907, from which Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences was originally derived.
The "new exhibition design 01" book from 2007 saw the start of a dedicated series of publications which presents current exhibitions and provides a historical background. An interdisciplinary, forward-looking Master course in 3-dimensional communication has started in the Winter semester 2008/2009. The 4-semester course, culminating with the degree "Master of Arts in Exhibition Design", enables individual focal points to be set or allows students to become "specialists of the general".
«Design is where society has not yet arrived.» Dr. Michael LentzA specific object of research covers exhibitions or 3-dimensional communication as a medium. Here, the narratives, transformation and mediality of historical and contemporary scenographic interventions are researched. The focus is on the history of exhibitions and their design, above all in a socio-cultural context - since when has what been exhibited how and where, in all variants and forms of presentation. Added to this is the analysis of the context "perception and conveyance" as a psychological subject. Which social developments lead to what changes in perception and conveyance, how does one react to such with the full range of insemination forms, which are nowadays as multifarious as never before.
The other focal point of research, "adaptable rooms", is concerned with the ability to vary or model spatial structures. This can be regarded as a spatial laboratory which develops innovative spatial atmospheres and processes and searches for and tests corresponding technical solutions. In this context, the analytical engagement with historical and typological examples is just as important as experiments in the search for new means of communication. Collaborations with appropriate partners from the spheres of culture and business are strived for.
Innovative room stagings are nowadays regarded not so much as "frozen" sets, but rather as adaptable organisms which provide different alternatives with regard to usage and atmosphere. This consciously procedural view of space on the one hand includes the user in the design as a possible actor. Yet it looks for an economic/ecological efficiency in reaction to ever accelerating requirements on the other hand and thus requires a range of instruments to provide diverse spatial constellations accordingly.
A "spatial laboratory" serves as a platform for such experimental and scientifically founded, formal-spatial research. An self-sufficient means of presentation and testing for innovative accesses and solutions is created through this project platform. Complex information and communication rooms are created here, which further-develop and elaborate on the classical forms of draft design. A dedicated, permanent showroom, that is also embedded in the cultural life of Düsseldorf, is to be established as a forum in the city.
The team of Düsseldorf lecturers consists of architects, designers, interior architects and cultural scientists. They oversee the course of studies with individual character and multiple linkages to practice and research with commitment, empathy and enthusiasm.