Our summer semester's brief is titled 'Die Donau'.

The Danube is one of Europe’s great rivers, it links 10 countries, more than any other river in the world. During the course of human history it was a waterway, a border and a bridge between 40 nationalities. Yet it also is an organism, a complex biological entity, a cultural object, a piece of infrastructure, a political entity, and a place with physical presence.

It is this interplay between the river's physicality and its more intangible forms, that we want you to explore this semester.

In this place-based brief, your central concept will revolve around an event/intervention centered on the Donau, where you will dive into your take on the essence of the river.  Working individually, as a solo project, or in a group of maximum three people, we invite you to select a specific location along the stretch of the river we will identify, for direct engagement, using this physical anchor as a starting point for your creative explorations.  

The design brief is to create a unique, tangible, hands-on experience that encourages people to immerse themselves in emotive aspects of the river. You may build a boat or a raft, cook up a river based dinner, create a floating playground, or anything else.  As long as it has physcial components that can be directed experienced. 

We are going to focus on thinking-through-making, physical building, translate ideas into concept design,  indepth aesthetics and experience design this semester!

The evaluation of the project will occur throughout the semester. There will be three important assessment points:

1. Midterm review for the presentation of Concepts which will include external reviewers. 

2. Presentation of final selected design which will include protoypes, models and aesthetics

3. Final Jury which will include external reviewers.