The Rhenish Lignite Mining District is using the momentum of the coal phase-out for a transformation into a sustainable economic region. Despite the associated challenges, this process offers opportunities for innovation and the emergence of a model region for the resource transition based on the coupling of the industry transition and the consumption transition. Students with creative skills, particularly from the design disciplines, who can actively shape their own future in the region, are important players in designing this change. They can contribute to shaping the sustainable product-service systems of the future and develop and support the narratives and communication and participation processes required for change.
The overarching goal of the project is to set the starting point for the establishment and institutionalisation of a "Future Design Hub". This hub is intended to serve as a transformation platform to turn ideas from the younger generation into prototype solutions in transdisciplinary cooperation between research, teaching and practice, from which the market, region and environment can benefit in the long term.
In the project, the researchers are implementing prototypes of processes and cooperation formats for a design hub and are involved in networking activities. The researchers at the Wuppertal Institute are responsible for leading the consortium and the overarching conceptualisation, while those at ecosign provide the conceptual framework for the teaching formats. A central element is the implementation of transdisciplinary teaching projects at the participating universities, Technische Hochschule Köln, Hochschule Rhein Waal and Katholische Hochschule, from which prototypes of design concepts emerge. The researchers at the Wuppertal Institute also carry out a stakeholder analysis and evaluate the experience gained from the project. The aim is to identify procedural and structural requirements and to develop a guiding vision that will enable the establishment of a Future Design Hub as a driving innovation infrastructure.
