Research and Development

Our research and PhD programme is both about creating insights through materials and the work of the hands as well as through traditional scientific experiments.
Laboratories

Focus areas

Our activities are organized in three laboratories and a PhD school, which puts design into play in relation to the areas of sustainability, social design and play.

We believe that it is within these three fields that we can especially contribute to the development of design, while at the same time addressing global opportunities and challenges.

Based on research, practice and an artistic approach, the laboratories generate knowledge and examples of how design contributes to the development and implementation of meaningful products, services and systems.

We strive to be a leader in design research in Denmark and internationally. If we do it well, Denmark can become a showcase for design solutions that the rest of the world could adopt.

PhD in Design

PhD programme
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News

News

01 Apr 2024

German inspiration

Acknowledged German bag designer teaches Accessory Design students to work with leather.

01 Apr 2024

Designer and documentarist

In her inaugural lecture, Christien Meindertsma talked about seeing the greatness of small things.

01 Apr 2024

Jewellery and Storytelling

Accessories can pave the way for personal stories

01 Apr 2024

Urban spaces that speak to people

PhD student spends her time trying to turn socially vulnerable parts of the city into better places to live.

01 Apr 2024

Companies demand and need more play

PhD project wants to disseminate play research to companies and teach them to use play as a tool for development.

01 Apr 2024

Perception is more important than spots

The basic idea behind VIGGA is a subscription to baby clothes. Two Ass. Prof. from Kolding have contributed research and knowledge.

01 Apr 2024

Method cards open the door to life-long learning

Instructors and course participants continually enhance 89 cards that provide a common language for design thinking.

01 Apr 2024

They turn the doctor-patient relationship upside down

What happens when patients acquire more participation rights? Researchers and designers at Design School Kolding investigate.

01 Apr 2024

Design that sustains

In just two weeks 50 students from around the world have turned real challenges into real, sustainable design solutions

01 Apr 2024

Design for People, Planet and Play

In the next academic year Design School Kolding will offer a Master’s Degree which integrates the classic design professionalism with cross-disciplinary specialisations in the fields of social inclusion, sustainability and play

01 Apr 2024

All roads lead to Planet

One travelled from New York, the other from an entrepreneurial enterprise. Now both are going to immerse themselves in sustainability at Design School Kolding’s Master’s programme.

01 Apr 2024

The future is now

What if we look to the future to solve the problems of ‘the here and now’? What if we realise, we are not moving into our desired outcomes because we have been asking the wrong questions all along?

01 Apr 2024

Via the Islands to the Future

Design School Kolding’s annual DesignCamp goes island hopping to design a new normal and a direction for our future

01 Apr 2024

From life hack to Universal Design

Design School Kolding and the Bevica Foundation are happy to announce the launch of a new PhD project focused on designing everyday products for people with special needs

01 Apr 2024

Children feel pressured when there is no correct answer

Design in education can lead us away from the pedagogy of the right answer

01 Apr 2024

Kate Fletcher becomes visiting professor

Internationally recognized expert in sustainable textiles and fashion becomes visiting professor at Design School Kolding

01 Apr 2024

Experiences across time and place

Danish-German project worth DKK 14.5 million will bring together 7 World War II museums and locations

01 Apr 2024

ME, US and THEM

For the third year in a row students design beer labels for Team Rynkeby's Children's Cancer Foundation fundraising campaign

22 Feb 2024

Implementing Digital Tools for a Sustainable Future

Me-You-Us project’s core lays in the recognition that digital tools present a significant opportunity in fashion education.

07 Nov 2023

Historically High Employment Among Designers

Brand new data reveals that a significantly higher number of newly graduated designers are entering the workforce. At Design School Kolding, this figure is higher than ever before

12 Oct 2023

Playing with ways of knowingPlay, Atmosphere and Experience in Danish Teacher Education

Design School Kolding invites you to join Lotte Agnes Lausen's PhD defence on 24 October 2023

03 Oct 2023

Providing a voice for young people through play and designPhD defense

Please join us 10 October 2023 as Line Gad Christiansen defends her PhD thesis 'Play probes – an approach to reveal emergent youth identity through playful making'.

02 Oct 2023

Plaything with IntentPhD defense

Design School Kolding invites you to join Antonia C. Södergren's PhD defence on 9 October 2023

07 Jun 2023

Six students are shortlisted

Students from Design School Kolding are running up for the Bevica Scholarship Prize demonstrating creativities when design meets disability

24 Apr 2023

How can you empower change as a designer?

For the past two weeks, this question has been the main focus of all Master’s degree students from Design School Kolding and Master’s degree students from Design Management at the University of Southern Denmark.

17 Apr 2023

Designing from a Child Centered perspective

For the course Child Centered Design, the students of the first year Design for Play Master’s programme created playful outdoor spaces for the municipality of Billund and KIRKBI. They did so in collaboration with the children of the International School of Billund, in a Child Centered perspective. From this collaboration, interesting designs emerged!

17 Apr 2023

Playing with Futures in Seoul

24 Master’s degree students from Design School Kolding’s Design for Play programme are getting ready to embark on a two-week outpost from 26 April – 9 May to Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea as part of their upcoming course on ‘Playing with Futures’

16 Dec 2022

Gender-neutral toys for kindergarten children

New PhD project focuses on gender, play and social norms in 4-6-year-old children

09 Dec 2022

Testing work clothes made of recycled textiles

Suggestions for the next generation of workwear

07 Dec 2022

Knowledge of the green transition

Design School Kolding was chosen as a case because we guarantee relevant knowledge, skills and competences in the green transition

28 Nov 2022

Open lectureSustainability and materials

Industrial symbioses and the designer’s potential role(s) in connecting material resources with process paths. By PhD student Luca Alessandrini. Monday, 12 December at 15.00

08 Nov 2022

Design School Kolding receives royal donation

The profit from Her Majesty the Queen's jubilee jewellery will benefit students from Design School Kolding

29 Sep 2022

Open lectureMemory-making & Perspective-shifting: Designing for Transformation

We’re delighted to welcome Professor Lisa Grocott from Monash University, Australia, to present a keynote at Design School Kolding

01 Sep 2022

New partnership receives three-digit million amount for green mission

Design School Kolding plays key role in a new collaboration focused on circular economy

07 Jun 2022

Scope

Meaningful feedback sessions through play

02 Jun 2022

View inaugural lecture by Eva Brandt

Let's rehearse the future! Here's your chance to experience or re-experience the inaugural lecture by Professor Eva Brandt held 24 May 2022 at Design School Kolding

03 May 2022

Meet the new designers at 3daysofdesign

Go see a selection of Design School Kolding graduation projects at Copenhagen’s international design festival 3daysofdesign

06 Apr 2022

Data as a Material for Fashion

DigiTalk at Design School Kolding, 2 May 2022

24 Mar 2022

What should the future look like?

The Geographical Garden in Kolding provides the scenery for a green time travel when design students display future objects anno 2092

16 Mar 2022

Hybrid Museum Experiences

Online "DigiTalk @Design School Kolding" den 4. april kl. 15.00-16.30 with Anders Sundnes Løvlie

11 Mar 2022

Textiles that talk

A new exhibition at Design School Kolding displays the life stories of refugee women through textiles

15 Feb 2022

Police, uniform, handbag!

Some 60,000 worn-out police uniforms could potentially be redesigned. But security is a stumbling block.

14 Feb 2022

DKK 36.5 million to boost play and design

The LEGO Foundation renews partnership agreement with Design School Kolding to strengthen education and research in play, learning and design

11 Feb 2022

The green revolution starts on the higher education level

New, pedagogical tool will help teach students about sustainable fashion design

09 Feb 2022

Shoes and bags for change

Design School Kolding and ECCO work together to integrate design, technology, learning and innovation

01 Feb 2022

Designing for Playful Tension – Or: How I drew two circles and wrote a bunch about it

PhD defence by Jess Uhre Rahbek

02 Dec 2021

Not one but manyDecentering design and sustainability and why it matters

Online guest lecture by Kate Fletcher, Wednesday 15 December from 15.00-16.00.

07 Oct 2021

Design students to be equipped for joint learning

16 cards will support design students in providing feedback to each other during their studies

30 Sep 2021

How do we enable the universality of design?

Researcher and design activist Yanki Lee becomes part-time guest Professor at Design School Kolding in collaboration with the BEVICA Foundation

08 Sep 2021

Meet the new designers at 3 Days of Design

Go see Design School Kolding’s exhibition at Copenhagen’s international design festival 3 Days of Design Thursday 16-18 September 2021.

07 Sep 2021

Inaugural lecture by Professor Thomas Binder

What can design do in the green transition? This question and possible answers will be at the centre of Professor Thomas Binder's inaugural lecture on Wednesday 6 October.

27 Aug 2021

This time we’ve felt the consequences

Design School Kolding’s Graduation Show TRANSFORM shows the potential of design in a time of change

11 Jun 2021

Factory in a Box

A disruptet course with ECCO shows new ways of working together

19 May 2021

A Crisis Panel to participate in the Folkemødet (the People’s Meeting)

Design School Kolding has set the table for the democracy party at this year's Folkemøde with an unusual partner

17 May 2021

Cultural Tourism Becomes the Centre of Sustainable Development

Design School Kolding and a number of museums are going to rethink the sustainable attractions of the future

06 May 2021

Circular design and innovative technology will turn textile waste into new raw materials

Together with a group of leading players, Design School Kolding wants to redraw the boundaries for recycling textiles

15 Apr 2021

The old silver meets the new designers

Design School Kolding and Museum Kolding receive funding to develop the vision of Kolding as a city of culture and design.

13 Apr 2021

Fashion Ecologies Experiences of fashion localism

Lecture and seminar with Dr. Kate Fletcher, pioneer in sustainable fashion and guest professor at Design School Kolding

24 Mar 2021

Green Team

With the appointment of two new associate professors, Design School Kolding further strengthens its research and education efforts in the field of sustainability

24 Mar 2021

Your urine is full of plastic

With her art installation Peeing, Processing, Producing, ph.d.-student Louise Permiin illustrates traces of the hormone disrupting substance Bisphenol-A, which a lot of us have in our bodies.

10 Mar 2021

Design that leaves no one behind!

Together with the Bevica Foundation, Design School Kolding is going to strengthen research and education in the field of inclusive design. The initiative is supported with DKK 5 million by the Foundation

09 Oct 2020

Fashion is a verbStories of movement and change

Inspiring and personal first lecture by Dr. Kate Fletcher as guest professor at Design School Kolding. Now available online

25 Sep 2020

Shift, leap, act: sustainability and design

Dialogues with Dr. Kate Fletcher, pioneer in sustainable fashion and new guest professor at Design School Kolding

20 Aug 2020

It's Play Time

Design School Kolding releases new book with insights and a hands-on guide on how to apply play and design to innovation and learning processes.

10 Jun 2020

Design School Kolding gets quality stamp

The Accreditation Council has awarded Design School Kolding a positive institutional accreditation

22 May 2020

Equipped for Tomorrow – Today

Software programme CLO 3D thrusts fashion students to the forefront when it comes to virtual prototyping for the fashion industry

20 May 2020

A Prototype of Successful Integration

New research publication demonstrates the successful integration of refugees through design

21 Feb 2020

Integration using needle and thread

Thanks to a research project completed at Design School Kolding, local immigrants are now designing beautiful decor from leftover textiles

17 Feb 2020

Mimicking the mind of a child

Designers who dedicate their time to providing children with positive play experiences should work as interns for the true experts: the children themselves. This could eventually extend the life cycle of the toys, shows new research by Design School Kolding

10 Feb 2020

Touched by Waste

Every day we discard more than 2 billion tons of waste globally. But at the Museum of Modern Waste, a worn-out scrubbing sponge or a bit of garden hose is being elevated to rare and beautiful artefacts

07 Feb 2020

Design meets sci-fi

75 MA students have travelled to the future and back and met human energy power plants and bionic organisms

02 Dec 2019

The shoe is on the same foot for ECCO and Design School Kolding

A new partnership agreement between ECCO and Design School Kolding gets boots on the ground for aspiring shoe designers in Denmark

19 Dec 2018

Many types of Master’s students

When Design School Kolding hosts its annual open house event on 30 January, we hope to see students from other institutions and programmes who want to learn about our three MA programmes

15 Nov 2018

Can I join in?

Design School Kolding has been awarded a major research grant from Independent Research Fund Denmark to study the effect of positive play communities on marginalised children.

04 Sep 2018

The path to integration goes through the wardrobe

More knowledge about Middle-Eastern fashion for researchers and companies, and better social integration for a group of refugee women. That is the ambition of THREAD, a three-year, cross-disciplinary research project involving Design School Kolding.

03 Sep 2018

A new Nordic shoe

Design School Kolding and ECCO present new Nordic shoes

29 May 2018

Design School Kolding winners

Three former students from Design School Kolding won a Danish Design Award for their visionary space project

24 May 2018

Design is the message

Design methods are the focus of Design School Kolding’s appearance at this year’s People’s Meeting in Allinge with thousands of badges and plenty of coffee

04 May 2018

Many applicants forDesign School Kolding’s new MA programme

Design School Kolding has redesigned its MA programme – and the new education is popular with a record-number of applicants.

03 May 2018

Milan, Magnifico!

Visitors (re)connected with their inner play child at Design School Kolding’s exhibition concept The Play at Milan Design Week

10 Apr 2018

More Craziness, Please!

Design students from the world’s first Master’s programme in Play and Design stage the con-tribution of Design School Kolding to Milan Design Week 2018.

13 Mar 2018

Play that resonates

It's not your typical play date when Danish industry meets design students in a podcast series by Design School Kolding (only available in Danish)

23 Feb 2018

New Education for Students in the Workforce

Soon, working design students will be able to upgrade their knowledge and their CV with a brand new professional Master’s degree.

01 Feb 2018

Can anyone play?

Almost 300 students, companies, designers, researchers and experts gathered at the final day of DesignCamp2018. And the message was clear: We need to become better at playing!

10 Nov 2017

Meet Søren Skøtt

Meet Søren Skøtt, Head of Design at Ledon, Play Partner in the Design for Play programme

21 Oct 2017

A Sustainable Fashion Industry? Yes, We Can!

If we make a concerted effort, it is indeed possible to stamp out excess production and the bad habits ingrained in the fashion industry. This is the claim put forward by Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, Else Skjold and Lykke Kjær from Design School Kolding in a discussion article in the Politiken.

04 Oct 2017

Design for play is not just about toys

We recently kick-started the world’s first Design for Play MA Programme. Now we open the brand new Play Workshop

05 Sep 2017

We need a new Age of Enlightenment

Today there is an eerie silence at the universities, said Rector of Design School Kolding at semester start. So be more rebellious, she added. Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen's speech was printed as a contribution to a debate in daily newspaper Politiken on 5 September 2017.

04 Sep 2017

Teachers put in the sorting cube

Teachers and students literally play their way through Design School Kolding’s new Design for Play MA programme

18 May 2017

Minister of culture introduces an ’a-ha’

A Danish dough whisk, a blue jumper and mobile pay are among the displays at Design School Koldings 50th anniversary exhibition, to be opened by minister of culture Mette Bock

29 Mar 2017

A brand new story about fur

At Kopenhagen Fur design management has contributed new knowledge about the use of strategic design in relation to sustainability

14 Mar 2017

Playmates create unique design Programme

In collaboration with the LEGO Foundation and the LEGO Group, Design School Kolding is ready to launch the world’s first Master’s Degree programme in Design for Play

14 Mar 2017

The Weekly Bargains are Silk Ribbon Pasta and Showerhead Pizza

The representatives from Design School Kolding are playing with colours, shapes and sustainability when they present a 'super-super' installation during this year’s Milan Design Week.

02 Mar 2017

Great interest in the REDO design conference in Kolding

Design School Kolding has received more than 150 research contributions for the upcoming REDO conference

23 Feb 2017

A glimpse into the wardrobe

The link between design, technology and the user’s emotional connection to knitwear is the focus of Louise Ravnløkke’s PhD thesis.

01 Feb 2017

Designers map efforts in long life and sustainability

Kopenhagen Fur now has new tool cards that will strengthen the company's sustainability efforts.

21 Dec 2016

Male banter and motor oil

Design School Kolding? Isn’t that the place where they do neat experiments on the loom and make delicate party dresses? NOT. The students contribute with motor oil and ‘long-bearded’ projects too. A new, open admission process makes it easier for everyone to apply.

14 Dec 2016

Design that loves daily life

Aesthetics, function and understanding the mindset of future users. These key points have framed an artistic development project involving a chair and a textile line carried out by two young designers. Both products are available in Coop stores as of December 2016

07 Dec 2016

Close and personal

Wearable health technology that measures and monitors your health offers all new possibilities for health care and elderly care.

22 Nov 2016

Design that moves

Joint Kolding-Shanghai Service Design project

06 Oct 2016

Design as a Power of Change

“Design is a team sport and will only effect change if a large group of individuals joins in,” says Mette Mikkelsen, newly appointed affiliate professor at Design School Kolding

26 Aug 2016

Talent all the way

67 new talents have been accepted at Design School Kolding. Soon we will know if they have what it takes.

02 May 2016

Danish design for the Minister

Danish car design was a big hit when the Danish Minister for Business and Growth Troels Lund Poulsen visited

30 Mar 2016

A handful in Milan

Kolding designers in prestigious exhibition at the world’s largest design event

03 Mar 2016

Thinking of studying design in Denmark?

Design School Kolding is reviewing applications

24 Feb 2016

Designing play is not ALL play

Design School Kolding’s LAB for Play and Design is ready to develop competences

30 Dec 2015

You design with your hands

Acknowledged Shoe Designer D'Wayne Edwards tests the comfort zone of ECCO and Design School Kolding

07 Dec 2015

DesignCamp2015 from the inside

Experience or re-experience highlights from this year’s DesignCamp in a new digital publication

26 Nov 2015

Do fashion designers have a particular way of working?

Designer Ulla Ræbild’s PhD dissertation investigates the specific working methods of fashion designers

20 Nov 2015

Play for the sake of play

Danish companies focus on childrens' play experiences when they design, states a new article

04 Nov 2015

Learning through materials

New PhD project zooms in on design students' approach to materials

30 Oct 2015

What is it we do when we design?

To help the design profession answer this question, Sidse Ansbjerg Bordal decided to address the topic in her PhD project and now she takes it to Australia

21 Oct 2015

Teacher and student

One of the world’s great profiles, Play Researcher Edith Ackermann, visited Design School Kolding

07 Oct 2015

Esteemed play researcher visits the school

Design School Kolding plays in the big leagues when Edith Ackermann from MIT visits the school on Monday 19 October

07 Oct 2015

Encountering the others

New joint innovation and entrepreneurship course across institutions and competences.

06 Oct 2015

New Danish-German health project

Design School Kolding will bring creativity and innovation into a large-scale health project

19 Sep 2015

Design at play

A box of 89 method cards creates inspiration and structure in the design process

12 Sep 2015

Smoking hot carpets

Can you redesign thousands of square metres of carpets from cruise ships and turn them into tents for refugees or perhaps fancy fur coats? Design School Kolding students come up with all new suggestions for reuse.

04 Sep 2015

New borderless library

New collaboration between the Design School and the Southern Denmark University Library.

02 Sep 2015

Joint focus on international students

New joint guidelines for offering Danish higher education programmes to students from around the world.

14 Aug 2015

New and familiar faces in Research

With the new semester around the corner we welcome three new PhD students and one additional senior researcher.

29 Jun 2015

Design education improves welfare and well-being

Innovation and improved welfare in health care. This is one of the reasons the school does research in teaching methods.

20 May 2015

Pass it on

New business concept promotes sustainability and sharing economy. Kolding contributes with research and development.

04 May 2015

Welcome Professor Bay

Rebekka Bay delivered a personal lecture when she was inaugurated as affiliate professor at Design School Kolding.

16 Apr 2015

Visit by acknowledged designer

Design School Kolding has the pleasure of welcoming Lynda Grose from California College of the Arts.

08 Apr 2015

Development and teaching go hand in hand

The teaching receives more funds thanks to business partnerships.

24 Nov 2014

ECCO book with feeling

Design School Kolding publishes book on shoe design together with ECCO.

13 Nov 2014

Shoeting for the stars

Star dust is in the air when shoe designer D’Wayne Edwards moves into Design School Kolding in November.

05 Nov 2014

Is this me?

PhD thesis shows that the newest trends don't determine what clothes people buy.

22 Oct 2014

Concepts of speculative design

New collaborative teaching project with the University of Southern Denmark.

03 Oct 2014

International jewellery designer at Design School Kolding

"Body as Space” was the headline of the lecture recently held at Design School Kolding by the recognized jewellery designer Naomi Filmer.

15 Sep 2014

Patient Democracy

How do we improve communication with patients - regardless of their social background - so that they get involved in making properly informed decisions about the best course of treatment?

27 Jun 2014

Research with a purpose

Design School Kolding is ready with a new, substantial publication that shows the direction of the school's research; a direction which involves creating sustainable futures.

23 May 2014

Visit by the Minister for Higher Education

The Minister for Higher Education and Science, Sofie Carsten Nielsen, commends Design School Kolding’s ability to create innovation and growth.

07 May 2014

LAUNCH Nordic seeks innovations

The global innovation platform LAUNCH Nordic is currently seeking innovations that will transform the system of textiles, fabrics and fibers to one that has a minimal environmental impact and/or drives social equality.

06 May 2014

7 new demands for the textile industry

Six students from fashion and textiles, one new designer and four teachers from Design School Kolding participated in the world’s main sustainability event.

Laboratories

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