“Campus” special show

Is a new generation of designers being raised against a backdrop of sustainability and "glocalisation"?

Campus, a special show for European colleges of design, will be taking place for the fifth time at Heimtextil. The Berlin Weissensee School of Art is one of 16 participating colleges. Zane Berzina, the college’s professor for conceptual materials and textures, gave us her answer to the question whether a new generation of designers is being raised against a backdrop of sustainability and glocalisation (a conceptual synthesis of globalisation and localisation):

“Sustainability is not a trend but a necessity. Up to 80 percent of the life cycle assessment for a product or project is designer-dependent. Only five to ten years ago, the theme of eco-design was still of limited interest to students. Now they start their studies with considerable background knowledge and want to know where a material comes from and where it is going. They think about the composition of materials and whether they can be re- or up-cycled. In the course of their studies, they learn to think in larger life circles, including know-how procurement. Today’s students are globally networked. They acquire global know-how to produce local products. Accordingly, it must be said that the next generation of designers learn, think and certainly work in a different way.”