Zollverein School at Ideas Park Hannover: Innovation by nature
The attentive reader of the international press will have noticed that Germany is currently undergoing one of the most wicked structural changes both in society as well as in economics.
While the upcoming soccer world championships can only spend temporary relief many societal stakeholders are currently launching initiatives which are aiming to motivate and communicate Germany’s attitude to innovation.
One of these initiatives is the joint forces project of ThyssenKrupp and the state of Lower Saxony titled: “Discover technology. Shape the future.”
Here’s a snippet from one of their press releases:
“The highlight of the “Discovering future technology” initiative in 2006 will be one of the biggest ever events dedicated to ideas and innovations: the Ideas Park. Together with more than 50 partners from the worlds of science, society, business and the media, ThyssenKrupp invites you to take a look behind the scenes of research and development work, to take part in experiments, to be amazed, to make new discoveries. The Ideas Park is being staged from May 20 - 28 on and around the Expo Plaza in Hanover. For more information on this event, click on the Ideas Park menu item.”
Actually Zollverein School under project leadership of the Dutch Designers & Zollverein Lecturers Ed Annink and Ronald Lewerissa will host a so called “Nomadic Academy” in the course of this event in Hannover as well. According to Ed Annink one of the fathers of the Academy the idea originated out of the limitations of the classical government led (design) education. In particular the formation of academic & business project partnerships and afterwards the commercialisation of these projects into real concepts and products wasn’t facilitated in this classical context any longer. As a consequence Annink founded the so called “Nomadic Academy” which has no fixed physical presence and is being hosted each year at a different location dealing with a different topic.
This year the Nomadic Academy consists of 12 design students from the Netherlands, Finnland and Germany and the group will develop ideas, sketches and prototypes for future products made of steel (one of ThyssenKrupp’s core business activities).
While the core project will be held at the Ideas Park in Hannover from May 20 - 28 the briefing workshop takes place today and tomorrow at the Zollverein School of management and design.
Stay tuned as I will attend the workshop as well and I will certainly write a posting about it!
May 9th, 2006 at 10:54 am
[…] Archives « Zollverein School at Ideas Park Hannover: Innovation by nature […]
May 30th, 2006 at 16:29 pm
[…] It’s day 5 of the Nomadic Academy today, and the atmosphere is busy. Ten innovative products for office or house work, made of stainless steel are to be created, developed, produced, presented to the public and marketed to potential customers within 9 days only. The group of 12 design students from the Netherlands, Finland and Germany are working hard on their projects, as Ed Annink and Ronald Lewerissa have established a tough time schedule: The scenario with the “client” ThyssenKrupp” is a real world setting and they expect high end products to be presented during the last day of the IdeasPark, on Sunday afternoon. […]
May 30th, 2006 at 21:48 pm
[…] In that way Zollverein School’s Design Workshop “Nomadic Academy” was very distinct from the other exhibits in the IdeasPark. The Nomadic Academy was probably the one and only exhibition stand which constantly changed its appearance and status. In the beginning the setting was very open for the audience as the design students included the audience in their discussions and design approaches, a very concentrated working atmosphere was observed the two days before the final presentation. […]