Starting from the next winter semester (academic year 2009/10), German HBK (Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig - Braunschweig University of Art) offers for the first time the master study course Transportation Design.

The course will focus on the future of mobility, from both a technical and social perspective. Below we report the official document that introduces the master course, whose application deadline is 15 August 2009.

From the official Press Release:

Master Course information

“The studies are divided into three phases”, the coordinator declares. “The first step is the concrete design of a product from the field of mobility, e.g. an automobile, a ship or a new kind of transport solution for everyday situations. The next is the phase of using innovation, i.e. the concept of a problem-solving service. It could be dealt with the optimization of assistance and information systems of mobility in rural areas. ”

"The last phase deals with system innovation. Here the students examine the co-dependence of different transport systems and how products can be integrated into the society. Interdisciplinary problems must be solved. One example is the design of a filling station for electrical vehicles or how public pipeline systems can support goods transport."

Briefly, the master programme Transportation Design can be described as follows: on the basis of the classical design studies the range of topics is widened with the gradual duration of studies more and more to an application geared to market and society. “From micro to macro”, Scholz explains.

Master Application

Concerning the applications that are expected until 15 August, Professor Rammler has following ideas: “It would be best if the applicants had a concrete vision of the topic of mobility when they come to us. This vision should be a recurrent theme throughout his whole individual education.”

The vision is a fixed part of the application procedure. Applicants are requested to present their interests and ideas about the subject of mobility in a letter of motivation along with convincing sample works. Applicants with promising ideas and interesting thoughts have good chances of being invited to an interview.

Background

“People become more and more mobile”, says Dr. Martin Scholz, course-coordinator at the Institute of Transportation Design (ITD) of the HBK Braunschweig. “We must ask ourselves which forms of mobility will exist in future.”

But this depends strongly on what people in twenty or fifty years will expect. In this respect the research of mobility is not only a technical task but also a socio-scientific one. Without the answers to this task designers cannot draft any sustainable products.

This is exactly the approach of the master programme Transportation Design (TD), pursuing a concept which is unique throughout Germany.

“It will be a unique feature of the HBK not to limit its work field to automobile design but to consider all products and systems of public mobility, from aeroplanes over railway trains to the pram, as well as to take into account engineering, design and social aspects”, Scholz says.

The Transportation Design at the HBK is not only a creative-artistic but also a scientific and interdisciplinary study course. Additionally to the design studies the students are instructed in basics and special knowledge of engineering, social and design sciences.

Topics like production or material knowledge, and trend and future analysis are important additional qualifications for dealing with customers in the later professional environment.

For Dr. Scholz this an enormous plus factor for the HBK Masters: “The chance of getting a job after the graduation is clearly higher if - besides the simple work of design, i.e. the classical design - the students work with technical design and the involvement of products into the society.”

The students will be generalists whose basis are always first-class design studies. The students learn how to deal an issue critically how to reflect it by attending lectures in other master study courses of the college, e.g. the Media Sciences, Arts or Communication Arts.

“Our objective is to abolish the separation between research and education and to link both with each other”, explains Prof. Dr. Stephan Rammler, head of ITD. Due to the restricted number of only 15 university places it is possible to offer the students an intensive supervision by four profesffsors.

They all work together on current research projects of the institute. “We integrate the students into our institutional work today in order to deal with the mobility problem tomorrow - not only in Braunschweig but globally”, Rammler declares.

About the HBK

Braunschweig HBK is the second biggest German University of Arts. It offers numerous possibilities and perspectives. The students profit especially from Braunschweig’s position as the centre of traffic competence of Southeast Lower Saxony.

The ITD also works together with a number of well-known co-operation partners based in the region, e.g. Volkswagen AG, Siemens AG, MAN or the Technical University of Braunschweig. Also good contacts to national mobility companies like the Bahn AG, Airbus /EADS, Daimler AG or the DLR contribute to this.

“This fact enables the students to establish important contacts with companies at an early time. Guest lecturers from the design and development department of Volkswagen and Mercedes guarantee that students have an insight into practice”, Professor Rammler tells.

“This multidisciplinarity makes the difference between vehicle designers and our graduates. They have very good chances on the labour market, because they have already experienced the interfaces and worked in mixed developing teams at an early stage of their studies.”

For more information about the course of studies and the application procedure visit the University website or the Institute for Transportation Design (ITD).

(Source: HBK)