The cooperation between FH JOANNEUM and LAB University of Applied Sciences Lahti began in February 2024 as part of an Erasmus teaching mobility programme. During a stay in Lahti, Anika Kronberger (Institute of Design & Communication) led a workshop on the topic of “Augmented Reality for Designers.” In this context, the foundation for a deeper collaboration was laid. Already during the visit, the Finnish partner university developed a course concept focusing on radical innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and international exchange.
12 students from Finland and four students from the Interaction Design programme at FH JOANNEUM were able to participate in the project.
A Week of Science, Numbers and Speculative Design at CERN IdeaSquare
A definite highlight was a week spent at the innovation lab IdeaSquare at CERN in Geneva. Together, the students developed concepts for a hypothetical settlement of the exoplanet Proxima Centauri B – with expert support from CERN and NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC).
In interdisciplinary teams, four central dimensions of future life in space were addressed:
- Shared and individual living spaces
- Forms of collaboration and conflict transformation
- Sustainable resource management
- Social life and mental well-being
Through workshops, creative ideation sessions, and interim presentations, initial visionary concepts for life and work on a distant planet were developed. The international cooperation continued afterwards, with the ideas being refined and concretized within the four groups. These group topics remained the focus during the subsequent weeks as well.
Course Structure: Blended Learning Meets Future Design
The course structure combined virtual and in-person teaching formats. From the start of the journey to Proxima Centauri B, through the colonization of the planet, to the surprising return to Earth, the students worked on ideation, creative thinking, prototyping, and speculative design.
Following the initial week, the intensive week at CERN took place. This was followed by a four-week online phase, before the course concluded with an intensive week of prototyping and concept development at FH JOANNEUM in Graz.
The final presentations of the seven-week course took place at ESA BIC/Science Park Graz, where students presented their prototypes and the development process behind them.
The cooperation project aimed to promote interdisciplinary teaching and to structurally integrate future-oriented topics such as radical innovation, future thinking, and design thinking into the curricula. The goal is to enable students to creatively respond to global challenges and actively contribute to sustainable development.
Vision and Outlook
In parallel with the teaching cooperation, a joint research project was submitted together with three additional universities and partner institutions. The aim is to further develop the format in the long term and to enable even more students to participate in the future.
Project Participants:
- Anika Kronberger, Daniel Fabry (FH JOANNEUM / Institut Design & Kommunikation)
- Jani Kalasniemi, Katariina Mäenpää, Lauri Repokari (LAB Lahti / Laboratory of Radical Innovations)
- Laura Virtavuori, Pablo Garcia Tello (CERN IdeaSquare)
- Jeremija Hranjec, Ines Šuh (ESA BIC + Science Park Graz)
- Dorota Bičárová, Veronika Poštrak, Sara Waldenberger, Leila Orynbayeva, Alex Fjällström, Ali Peter Atai, Alicia
- Carpenter, Henrietta Mitchell, Jimi Toiviainen, Jonne Heinonen, Josephine Lybeck, Maija Hassinen, Pinja Pisto,
- Sofia Nylund, Tommi Samuli Ahonen, Veera Savolainen (students FH JOANNEUM CMS Interaction Design + LAB Lahti LRI)
