Zollverein School Blog

… ever since Heraclitus is being said to have coined this phrase we know that his insight is more true than ever these days. Accordingly in case you have followed our Blog over that last year you might have noticed that there have been some important changes here at Zollverein School.

Well, one of the milestones has clearly been the grand opening of the new Zollverein School building at the end of July. At the same time the presidency of Zollverein School has been handed over from Prof. Ralph Bruder to Andrej Kupetz. From my perspective this hand over is also a synonym for the transition from setting up such a unique institution like Zollverein School to developing direction and thought leadership at the intersection of design & business in education and practice.

What is now in front of Zollverein School is what Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel Corporation, called “Strategic Inflection Point”. Accordingly Zollverein School is clearly aiming at going to new heights and is preparing itself for this challenge. Or to quote Andy Grove once more: “An inflection point occurs where the old strategic picture dissolves and gives way to the new”.

So what does this mean on an operational level? Well, so far I can only share this from my blog editors’ perspective. For the moment it means that the blog is taking a break until further notice … but wait, wait: We are clearly in the process of developing other/new options to stay in touch with you and with the people who are interested in what is going on at Zollverein School in the future.

Therefore in the time in between please feel free to subscribe to our Email notification service will will keep you posted about new things to come. Subscription and Administration is very easy and you only have to provide your email address (which will clearly not be shared with any other third-party!) in the field below. Thanks for your ongoing readership and talk to you soon:

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Time is getting closer to the launch of the symposium “Entering the Evacuated field” which will be held September 29th here at Zollverein School of management and design. as promised here are some more detailed information about the lecturers and their topics:

• Ole Bouman, editor in chief of the architectural magazine ARCHIS and coordinator of the project VOLUME, will open the symposium with a challenging lecture: Evacuating the field ‘myself…’, goes the title of his keynote, will address three provocative questions:

  - how to escape the cheap commitment with global issues.
  - how to overcome the navel-gazing of the aesthetic disciplines.
  - how to fight lies.

  Considering that VOLUME is a project launched by Archis, Rem Koolhaas’ think tank AMO and the C-lab as a new global idea platform to voice architecture anyway, anywhere, anytime, we are sure he will present some astonishing insights about the planning disciplines. VOLUME describes itself as “an instrument of cultural invention and re-invention. It is dedicated to experimentation and the production of new forms of architectural discourse.” The symposium “Entering the Evacuated Field” will give plenty of opportunity to join this discourse in an authentic ambiance, since the Zollverein School itself was born in the context of “cultural re-invention”.

• Furthermore you will have the chance to listen to Momoyo Kaijima from the atelier bow-wow. Mrs. Kaijima is visiting professor at the famous ETH Zurich. She will talk about social space from micro public space.

  Atelier bow-wow are Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (*1965) and Momoyo Kaijima (*1969), who have their architectural office in Tokyo. The practice is renowned for its varied urban research: They have scoured Tokyo for hybrid architecture – buildings that serve multiple, often absurd mixed-uses (e.g. car-park with driving school) on the one hand, and also analyzing small-scale architecture, customized and individualized to fit the limited spaces of Tokyo city. Taking these buildings and documenting them, they establish an entirely different way of seeing the city of Tokyo. Documenting their research they have published many books, amongst which: “Made in Tokyo” (Kajima Institute Publishing, 2001) and “Pet Architecture”. Some examples are exhibited in the ENTRY exhibition Talking Cities.

• “Wasteland as a brand” is the title of Boris Sievert’s lecture. He will ask, why the potential of the industrial heritage of the Ruhr Area is not yet used efficiently. Might it be an idea to develop a hype to market this area by simply giving it away? What kind of aspirations could be raised by such a strategy? How would such a strategy affect the identity of the Ruhr Area?

  Boris Sieverts initiated the project “Land for Free” together with the architects and urbanists from orange.edge and RE.FLEX. “Land for Free” is an utopian concept for a city in and between the existing cities of the Ruhr area, a city that comprises the realization of individual dreams, made possible by the annexation of vacant lots in the Ruhr area. Land for Free aims to attract settlers from all over Europe for their project as part of „Essen for the Ruhr – European Capital of Culture 2010”.

• “Like a Phoenix from the ashes“ describes Fritz Straub the history, status and chances of the brand of „Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau“. In 1992, “Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau”, until the second world war the leading brand in interior architecture, interior decoration and furniture production were sold by “Treuhandanstalt” via MBI. The Brand was famous in the GDR public as best furniture maker in the country, in the west the image of the company was blurred and existed only as reminiscence on a garden city and good furniture in parent’s houses.

  His lecture elaborates the strategy which has been followed by the management to revive the brand and to withstand the temptation to exploit the brand too early.

• Muck Petzet, will talk about Architectonic Transformations, concerning the way, how society deals with resources. An example of his work was shown in the in the German contribution Deutschlandschaft at the Architectural Biennale in Venice 2004.

  In shrinking societies, Petzet claims, recycling the architectonic heritage of the past will be the future of the architectural profession. Despite the fact that refurbishment has already overhauled new building by volume and investment there is – outside of monument protection - no methodology and very little theory of refurbishment available. Muck Petzet’s statement will begin to fill this gap by analyzing recycling methodology and giving an insight into the development of several transformation projects.

• Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner just contributed to the Architectural Biennale in Venice with their research about Caracas. They will emphasize in their lecture that in a rapidly globalizing world, in a place where gasoline is cheaper than drinking water the architecture of a city, how people move, live, work and play, has taken on new meaning as the subject of research, investigation and political intervention.

  With their urban-think-tank Brillembourg & Klumpner can refer to practical experience, which proves that it is city architecture which really shapes people’s lives. Providing well-designed and managed public buildings has reduced crime by 40% in some areas. The creation of a vertical gym and a cultural center at the heart of a slum dignified the existence of disenfranchised communities, transforming people’s lives as much as the provision of social welfare and food.

In case you should be as thrilled as we are about the roster of speakers you should definitively download the flyer and register for the symposium . See you in a couple of days at Zollverein School!

While the new Zollverein School building has just been opened exciting events already knock at the door! Later this month a highly inspiring symposium with international experts will be held at the Zollverein School of management and design. After all make sure, you won’t miss it and mark you calendars for Friday, Sept. 29th 2006 from 10 a.m. – 20 p.m.

Under the headline “Entering the Evacuated Field” international speakers coming from management, design, architecture, and urban planning will discuss the importance of new strategies to revaluate dismissed situations. With this approach the symposium follows up the observation made by the ENTRY2006 curator Francesca Ferguson that:

»Reconsidering and reactivating existing structures and finding ingenious solutions for the re-use of that which has been declared obsolete should become a prime motivator for today‘s designers, planners and architects.«

This quote reveals a key challenge especially for the corporate world: How can it be managed to build something new and valuable on existing contexts which seem to have lost all their attractiveness? The symposium will show that it is first of all a question of design thinking that turns an evacuated field into a prosperous situation. Designers and managers in the evacuated field are developing their strategies based on pro-active behavior not reaction, they prototype and do not use a master plan, they encourage wild ideas and do not stick to the established.

At the symposium exhibitors of TALKING CITIES will demonstrate their case studies concerning the micropolitics of urban space. As well we will have impressive case studies from business that deal with reactivated brand heritage.

Within the next couple of days we will present some of the speakers in more detail here on this weblog. Stay tuned. In the meantime you will might want to have a look the programme flyer (PDF ~ 470kb).

It’s one month ago today that the new Zollverein School building has been opened in an official ceremony on July 31st, 2006.

Fortunately I’ve been able to attend the ceremony as well. Beside the official character of the event with lots of officials from public administration, politics and the school itself the atmosphere somehow reminded me on visiting an arts exhibition as well. Lots of people were walking around the (at that time) still empty floors and the architects themselves also led visitors through the building and explained their concept and ideas.

Many journalists have been present as well ranging from design over architecture to local newspapers and magazines. Accordingly within the last couple of weeks lots of articles have been published about Zollverein School.

Today I’d though that it might be a good idea to share a list of resources in order to enable you to make up your mind as well what the interested public thinks about Zollverein School and its thrilling new building (so far most of the resources are still pointing to German nodes, but I’m sure this will change soon …):

• NZZ Online: Von der Kohlenwäsche zum Design der Zukunft
• Wirtschaftsmagazin Ruhr: Designinitiative für den Mittelstand
• BauNetz.de: Design oder Nichtsein
• Die Welt: Würfel ohne Wände
• taz: Bauhaus des 21. Jahrhunderts
• taz: Das Ende der großen Lösungen
• Die Welt: Zollverein wird Top-Adresse für Design
• Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger: Ein fertiges Haus, ein fortdauernder Prozess
• Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger: Schlüsselübergabe in der Zeche
• Der Spiegel: “Was ist eine gute Religion?”
• Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger: Ein fertiges Haus, ein fortdauernder Prozess

Update 05/09/06: Another source found via SPIEGEL Online:

• Süddeutsche Zeitung, 05.09.06: “Im Master-Werk”

Today I’ve found the Zollverein School Blog listed on the recently released website of INDEX:2007. Haven’t heard about INDEX: yet? Well, after all INDEX: is a non-profit network organization, that focuses on Design to Improve Life worldwide. Here’s a quote from their website:

“The first INDEX: meeting was held from 7 – 11 November 2003 in Executive Lounge, which also serves as the international jury for the INDEX: Award. This meeting marked the constructive beginning of INDEX: as a commercial foundation.

INDEX: 2005 took off with great success and international applause. The INDEX: idea was a reality created by the organization and 37 private and public partners. Design to Improve Life was a new approach to the definition of good design.

WHAT DOES INDEX: DO? INDEX: presents the best examples of Design to Improve Life, awards the very best and gives access to the underlying processes, thinking and people, by:

• Awarding the biggest design award in the world in the categories body, community, home, play work. INDEX: Award is worth € 500000.
• Presenting international design exhibitions.
• Hosting summits for the world leaders of design and innovation.
• Publishing and distributing knowledge.

So if you might ask yourself now: “How do I nominate a design for INDEX: award 2007?” you might want to read this PDF which explains the procedure. As there has been some critical discussion about the credibility of design process and contests recently it might interest you that there is no fee of any kind required to take part in the competition.

The nomination brochure even suggest several approaches to nomination for design institutions ranging from a national design competition (with the winner getting nominated by the organizing body) over web site polls to group submissions from design(ers) managers.

So any great ideas or submissions out there? Let me know and share via comments to this posting or by sending an email to zschool[at]design-management.de. Hurry up: Nomination has already started on June 13th, 2006, and ends November 18th, 2006.

In the light of Martin’s recent posting about the Buddy guide project I’ve felt tempted to think the somehow great idea a little bit further. However prior to doing so let me first explain for our readers from abroad why I think the BuddyGuide concept is so well suited for the location of Zollverein:

As you might have understood from previous postings about the Ruhrgebiet and Zollverein itself the area (still) is a special place with a unique character. Once the Ruhrgebiet (and I guess there are similarities to other former industrial sites like the one in Belgium Mark Vanderbeeken has posted about) has been Germany’s industrial heartbeat based on coal mining and steel production right after the second world-war for a couple of decades. Accordingly the area was characterized by air and water pollution for a long time (which fortunately today is a thing of the past), mostly poor living conditions and dominated by up to 500.000 Polish immigrants from East Prussia and Silesia as as result from the “Ostflucht”.

However the Ruhrgebiet residents always demonstrated a certain level of pride for their work, their culture and their local dialect “Ruhrdeutsch”. Fortunately these originalities and their attitude have survived throughout the years even though “… as demand for coal slowly decreased after 1960, (and) the area went through phases of structural crisis and industrial diversification, first developing the traditionally strong manufacturing, then moving into service industries and high technology.” (Quoted from Wikipedia)

Therefore from my perspective Zollverein and Zollverein School today are somehow a “totem” connecting the past with the future. Consequently according to the words of the architects of Zollverein School’s new building “[the school] … was designed specifically to blend in with the other buildings on the former coalmine site, (but still) it has its own unique character”.

Having said this all I find the BuddyGuide concept is quite perfectly addressing these links between the past and the future by enabling tourists to get in touch with the area via the very subjective perspective of residents or insiders in the incarnation as BuddyGuides. However let’s push the idea even one step further … by sharing with you some things which happened to me lately:

Last week via Heiko Hebig I’ve been pointed to “jogmap.de”. Jogmap is a free site where you can save and edit your personal jogging routes beside sharing your favorite routes via blogs and flickr!. After all the site makes pretty much use of latest Web 2.0 technology via Googlemaps. I was wondering why I haven’t seen a similar thing earlier at any of the major running shoes manufacturers’ websites …

Well, prior to that some weeks ago I’ve talked to a friend who proudly showed me his latest gadget: The Garmin Forerunner 201 GPS (and I’m sure there exist several other gadget from competitors as well). The other night he sent me an email with a small attachment with a *. KML file ending. Since I’ve trusted him I double clicked the file and suddenly Google Earth started. What I saw afterwards in front of me (illustrated by Google’s satellite maps) was the complete jogging route he ran (our ways crossed while practicing) monitored with distances, pulse beat, interims, height differences of the terrain, etc. to be zoomed in up to 50 mtrs. Via GPS the Garmin tracked his route saved the data. The data has been exported to a PC afterwards and has been imported by SportTracks which finally saved the KML-file to be distributed.

Finally in late June I’ve had to travel to Paris and while searching for some interesting information about the capital of France I’ve stumbled across iAudioguide.com. iAudioguide.com offers mp3 audio guides for tourists who visit major cities in the world fro free. For sure I’ve downloaded the Paris-MP3 and listened to it on my iPod;-)

After all to make a long story short: You already know what I’m heading for? What if the BuddyGuides would be equipped with Garmin gadgets, recorded and published their comments and stories on the various Zollverein attractions on iAudioguide.com and afterwards exchanged their recordings via the BuddyGuide Blog with the rest of us? Wouldn’t this be a great experience to follow their route in 3D via Google Earth and listen to the according stories …

How close would this bring the Ruhrgebiet and its history, the Zollverein world cultural heritage as well as Zollverein School to you? Wouldn’t this be a great example of Service Design 2.0 (Interview conducted by the Danish Design Center with Simona Maschi & Vinay Venkatraman - 20 Aug 2006)?

In any case drop your comments below under this posting and share your ideas and comments!

Good news: The first Zollverein School spin-off is on its way! With the innovative BuddyGuide concept, three of Zollverein School’s class of 2006 MBA students kicked-off their own business, which can be tested for a duration of two weeks at the Entry2006 in Essen, Germany. From September 23rd, 2006 up to the October 8th, 2006 six to ten Buddyguides can be booked around the Zollverein Symposium.

BuddyGuide is a unique, innovative, personalized and internationally oriented guidance system. The idea for this system was born at the Zollverein School of Management and Design within the first Trimester of the first MBA class in July 2005.

Thinking about the complexity of the Ruhrgebiet and triggered by the opportunities to develop a unique orientation system for the “Kulturhauptstadt 2010 (European Cultural Capital 2010)”, Zollverein Students Anja Soeder, Norwin Kandera, Martin Mangold, Ole Schilling and Robert Tyborsky designed a concept for an innovative business model, which allows a tourist or visitor to get to know the city via a second person, an insider or a resident.

At best the visitor gets picked up at the train station or at the airport. Accordingly two people meet who have already exchanged their preferences via the Internet. Finally they can start a tour for an hour or more to experience the interesting things of every day life around Zollverein.

The idea of the BuddyGuide system already attracted various people as well as newspapers throughout Germany and finally won the Future Design Award of NRW, awarded with Euro 10.000 last year. And now, what appeared to be just a good idea is more and more becoming reality.

The BuddyGuide GbR located on the Zollverein Campus organized a reality check with real Buddies that will be at your service for the international design event ENTRY2006 in Essen as well as during the Zollverein School Symposium. Contractual details for the service are negotiated between the BuddyGuide and the customer at reasonable prices.

For booking a Buddy please call +49.201.2895812 and discuss your needs and further details with the company Zeitsprung (Link to be provided soon). From middle of September onwards our internet platform will present the Buddies while online booking is not implemented yet.

After all this action will certainly prove whether the BuddyGuide system might work locally as well as on an international scale. Try it out!

For further questions just send an email to: .

It’s only 10 days ago that the new building of the Zollverein School has been handed over to the school’s new president. Beside some rumors I’ve heard about that the building will be fully usable at the end of August Zollverein School already hosted its first big event yesterday titled: “99 years Werkbund. The future of Industrial Culture”.

While the list of speakers might not sound too interesting for foreign readers from a German perspective the roster of 15 minutes presenters looked quite high caliber. Needless to mention that the new Zollverein School president Andrej Kupetz as the host of the location also contributed content-wise by connecting the architecture of the building with the cultural heritage of the Zollverein School area.

Anyway, if you are like me you might have heard the term Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) in some or the context. However to be honest I did not know too much about its origins so far. Thanks to Wikipedia I’ve gained some interesting insights about it. After reading the article I’ve somehow concluded that Werkbund (beside being an important precursor to the Bauhaus) has been one of the earliest attempts to connect architecture, design and industrialists which for me is one iteration towards what we today tag as the Creative Industries.

Similarly to the motivation of the City of Essen, the Government of North Rhine-Westphalia and the European Union to build a landmark both in form and content Werkbund as well has been “a state-sponsored effort to integrate traditional crafts and industrial mass-production techniques, to put Germany on a competitive footing with England and the United States.”

However by the same token the Zollverein area is a project in constant transformation the Zollverein School of management and design is on its way to transform itself as well by integrating design skills with management thinking and by leaving the publicly sponsored status and becoming a commercially independent business in 2008.

If you’d want to be part of this process contact us for further information on our programmes!

I’ve returned from the handover of keys ceremony at the new Zollverein School of management and design building yesterday late afternoon after spending some more hours than originally planned ;-) Lot’s of interesting and important (!) people have attended the ceremony and I’d wish I could have recorded some interviews and post them as a podcast here on this site. Interesting idea … (?!)

After all my one line summary: The building simply is amazing and a real landmark even in the context of the equally thrilling setting of Bauhaus architecture dominated former coal mine buildings. However here’s a snippet from the recent press release which describes my impressions quite well:

“Although the Zollverein School was designed specifically to blend in with the other buildings on the former coalmine site, it has its own unique character. This light grey cube seems both powerful and lightweight at the same time. The building is 34 metres high and has a footprint measuring 35 x 35 m. The inner structure of the building is also unique. It comprises four storeys (four levels and a rooftop garden) of different ceiling heights. Most of the 5,000 square meters of useable space is open plan and can be used for myriad purposes. This makes it ideally suited to the Zollverein’s innovative tuition and research concept. The atmosphere of the space in the building is best described by the term ‘reduction’. There are few supporting structures and all of the building technology is hidden in the walls and ceilings. All of this emphasises the focus on essentials.”

Fortunately Photographer Thomas Mayer was present as well and again he took some amazing shots as well. While you can access the complete “visual story” of the construction process on his website I’ve also picked and placed my favourite shots at the end of this posting.

On my 45 minutes drive home one statement of the two (star) architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA) made me think of impact this building will have on the future development of Zollverein School:

“When asked to explain their design for the Zollverein School of Management and Design building, renowned architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa said that ‘it’s all about context and process’. Together with the general planning team (SANAA/Böll), the client (Entwicklungsgesellschaft Zollverein mbH), the user (Zollverein School), and specialist engineers, they designed an impressive building, the concept for which was based on the school’s mission. With its flexible space design, it reflects the Zollverein School’s unique theory that design and management skills should be combined and its goal of breaking new ground in the field of corporate management.”

And by the same token the story of Zollverein School reminded me on the case of the Peter B. Lewis Building for the Weatherhead School of Management. Similarly to Zollverein School and SANAA, world-renowned architect, Frank O. Gehry and his firm, Gehry Partners worked with the Weatherhead School of Management on the design and construction of the impressive building. Their experiences have been documented in highly recommend book titled “ Managing as Designing”. Some sample chapters of this book can be downloaded for free at their project site.

While Zollverein School also published some very professionally and appealing brochures about the building, process and event Prestel Publishing also published a book about Zollverein School which I have as a hardcopy on my desk. I’ll see if I can get some PDF sample chapters for you as well …

As announced on Tuesday this week today I’d like to share some information about Zollverein School’s MBA programme(s) with you; well at least as far as they do not affect non-disclosure issues ;-)

Interestingly this week’s Handelsblatt.com MBA newsletter pointed me to an interesting study conducted by gmac.com. The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC®) is composed of representatives from leading business schools worldwide however their main focus clearly is on the anglo-saxon graduate MBA markets.

Anyway, also for the post graduate market their reports holds some good news namely that:

“Across the board, recruiters feel better about the economy now than at any other point since the GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey was launched in 2002, when global economic conditions were in a slump. Corporate recruiters said they plan to hire 18 percent more MBAs this year than in 2005, on average, with finance and marketing expertise in particularly high demand.”

later on the report continues as follows by emphasizing the rising demand for more “soft skills focused leaders”:

“Recruiters said they are especially eager to find MBAs whose “soft” skills—intangible qualities such as leadership potential and communication expertise—are strong. Nearly 40 percent of recruiters said they place significant weight on soft skills when judging people they interview. A majority of the respondents said MBA students are receiving sufficient training in these areas in business school.

Most of the recruiters who participated in the survey also said MBA graduates are generally well grounded in traditional business skills such as problem-solving and analytical thinking. But GMAC surveys of MBA alumni indicate that people tend to rely more on softer skills as they advance in their careers—suggesting that business schools and their students could benefit from placing additional emphasis on developing these types of abilities.”

From my perspective at Zollverein School it’s the balanced mix of both aspects “hard” and “soft” skills which makes the MBA programmes different. Together with its strong emphasis on “Design” as a methodology to create and shape processes and products the Zollverein School MBA programmes are aiming at a unique strategic position on the international MBA map.

In order to illustrate this unique blend of content here are two quotes from current MBA class of 2006 & 2007 students which might illustrate some of their expectations. While Werner Bossenmeier is currently finishing his Master Thesis, Bettina Martini started the Executive MBA this early spring:

‘In a constantly changing market environment, the only real constant is change. My professional goal is to make emerging movements for change visible, and to translate these into innovative processes for companies.’

Werner Bossenmeier
Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux | Zollverein School MBA 2006

‘The course opens up new perspectives for me, which widen and possibly even change my angle of vision, and which will have an effect on my work. I am convinced that a holistic approach to the entire design process, involving all concerned—the client, their company, and of course their end customers too—will lead to a better and more sustainable outcome.’

Bettina Martini
factor design Hamburg | Zollverein School MBA 2007

So what are the basic co-ordinates of the two MBA programmes which are addressing these expectations? Let me simply assemble and quote some of the data from the PDFs Zollverein School has prepared (Executive MBA, Full-time MBA), but which are quite embedded in their current website. In general the curriculum is divided into five subject areas:

In contrast to the ‘common’ approach of MBA programmes to create and address modularized and very often independent blocks of knowledge the modules (or ‘strands’ as they are called here) of the Zollverein School MBA are highly linked in a sense that:

“… the same issues are picked up on in the varying subject areas and treated there from their specific perspectives. This enables the individual issues to be linked, with the effect that the students get to know the present and future challenges of management better.”

By the same token the Zollverein School MBA is not a general tour of MBA concepts, but rather has an emphasis “… on Strategy & Marketing with the focus on customer-oriented development and implementation of strategy concepts.” Accordingly:

“… in the Transformation and Methodology strands will allow students to acquaint themselves with themes from the fields of culture, society, and business that have a sustainable impact on current corporate developments. The issues dealt with in these classes will be raised and discussed in other parts of the course. The lecturers for this strand will also be involved in the Strategy & Marketing, Organization & Leadership and Finance & Operations strands.”

If you reflect this approach in the context of the GMAC study mentioned above you will see the Zollverein School MBA approach is perfectly addressing the balance between hard & soft skills as discussed above. Furthermore it re-positions “Design” in the larger context of the corporate value chain: From being a simple sub-function of marketing to an company wide methodology addressing various stakeholder groups inside and outside the organization.

For further information and getting in touch with Zollverein School and its staff visit the Zollverein School website on ‘Personnel’ as well as contacting Katrin Oemmelen and/or Annekatrin Sonn.