International design students from all disciplines meet at the sustainable summer school to design the future of everyday life and rituals.

The summer school „value through less“ offers students from all over the world the unique possibility to design and to shape the future lifestyle in a sustainable way.

Program overview

Day 1:
Get-together, following field trip to Zeche Zollverein

Day 2-3:
Participation in the congress:
»The Future of Sustainable Products and Services« Innovation Conference

Day 4-7:
Parallel design workshops with different focused subjects (i.e. rituals, area of needs etc.) including evening talks with Prof. Dr. Schmidt-Bleek and Michael Radau about new products and servicesin a dematerialized world.

Day 7:
Group presentations. Visit to Insel Hombroich.
Good-bye party

The workshop starts with an excursion to visit locations from the period of coal mining which are now transferred into sustainable re-use.

As an introduction to the subject the students will participate in the first two workshop days of the international congress

»The Future of Sustainable Products and Services« Innovation Conference, 28./29.09.09, where renowned experts on business, science, ecology and sustainability will present the latest research results on sustainable issues. On the third day the students will be grouped into teams

(4 to 6 students). They will be introduced to the working methodology of the workshops, which will continue for 4 days in total. An experienced team of professors will guide the workshops.

At the end of each workshop day the students will have the possibility to share their ideas and their experience with an expert in eco-efficiency, like Prof. Dr. Schmidt-Bleek (President, Factor 10 Institute) and eco-business, like Michael Radau, (CEO, SuperBioMarkt AG).

The team work will end with a presentation of the elaborated concepts. Finally a discussion will take place that relates the concepts of the students to the criteria of sustainability.

The summer school will end with a trip to the Museumsinsel Hombroich and a party.