Cities are our natural world, created by us and yet, in their constantly shifting complexity, almost beyond our grasp. Urbanization processes do not end at the city boundaries. Almost infinite networks, alienated communication, hasty consumption and conflicts of social marginalization or economic injustice determine our urban survival. Cities form contested spaces, whose present refers back to the past, whose power structures can be identified and also changed. It is important to predict the need for change well in advance but also to be able to react to acute crises great and small with fresh solutions.

Innovations are driven on a bottom-up basis. Not infrequently they arise at the margins of society, where established structures encounter influences from without, traditional responses no longer work, or safeguards apply to some but not to others.
The projects developed in the studio situation of our Social Design program show that societal innovation–meaning extraordinary results and unexpected approaches–becomes possible where different forms of knowledge and methods interact, where artistic acumen combines with creativity from the so-called hard sciences, where design, theory, architecture and the fine arts not only pool their strategies but also enter into confrontations and alliances that can be both risky and productive.

Innovative methods construct new meanings, strengthen responsibility and thus create the preconditions for identification with one’s own actions. Students who choose the Master’s in Social Design – Arts as Urban Innovation signal their determination to play a critical and active part in influencing society and a refusal to discount the future!

Curriculum

The master programme Social Design Arts as Urban Innovation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna is oriented towards graduates from diverse fields of study, thereby stipulating work in transdisciplinary teams as the central teaching and learning approach in the programme. On the basis of professional competences acquired in their respective previous studies, students become acquainted with transcending disciplinary codes and thinking and working in greater interrelationships. Art in synergy with project-related scientific methods and knowledge is seen as a tool for urban innovation.

Duration and Scope:
4 semesters / 120 ECTS 
Graduation: "Master of Arts" (MA)

Download the curriculum as a PDF:  Deutsch  English

People

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Ruth Mateus-Berr

Artist / Design Researcher, Vienna

Ruth Mateus-Berr is an artist and design researcher currently based in Vienna. Her artwork deals with interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary questions. She is interested and experienced in art & design education, Design Research, Design Thinking, Social Design. She is professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and head of expertise in Design at MA Social Design, member of Design Research Society, and Research directory of Sensory Studies. 

Former Staff member
Design
+43 1 711 33 – 2030
ruth.mateus-berr@uni-ak.ac.at

Isin Önol

Curator, New York/ Vienna

Isin Önol (1977, Turkey) is an independent curator primarily working in Vienna since 2009. Before that, she leaded the Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art as its director and curator in Istanbul for three years. She is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Cultural Studies, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, and has been invited to work as a visiting scholar for a year at Columbia University, New York.

Visiting Curator / Summer Term 2017
Cultural Studies
isinonol@gmail.com
isinonol.com

Christian Orendt

,

Visiting Artist / Summer Term / 2022

Nina Pohler

Sociologist,

Nina Pohler is a Sociologist with a background in Socioeconomics and Urban Studies. Her research interests include urban studies, organization studies and economic sociology. As a trained software developer, she is also interested and involved in projects tackling the interrelation between technology and society. She is PhD Student in Sociology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, her PhD project is on coordination and valuation practices in alternative organizations.

Former Staff member
nina.pohler@uni-ak.ac.at
Twitter: @NinaPohler

Barbara Putz-Plecko

Artist, Vienna

Barbara Putz-Plecko is artist and professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna since 1997. As the Vice Rector of the University she is reponsible for research and quality management. Furthermore she is the chair of the Institute for Cultural Sciences and Art Education and head of two departments: the Textile Department and the Department for Art and Communicative Practices.

Former Staff member
Fine Arts
+43 1 711 33 – 2700
barbara.putz-plecko@uni-ak.ac.at

Thomas Matthias Romm

Architect, Vienna

Thomas Romm is a civil engineer and pioneer in resilient architecture. He is a co-founder of BauKarussell - a cooperation network for social urban mining. He teaches ecology for architects at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna at the Institute for Art and Architecture (IKA). Some of his work has recently been published in the “Manual of Recycling” (2019). He also contributed to the social design reader #3 “Circular Change: 42 richtungsweisende Gespräche” (2019).

Resilient architecture and circular economy
thomas.romm@romm.at
www.baukarussell.at
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