Da En
29 Mar 2019 / The school and employees

Design School Kolding celebrates new professors

Eva Brandt and Thomas Binder’s inauguration on May 1 cements the school’s status as research institution
By Katrine Worsøe

The new professorships are key to Design School Kolding’s strategic focus on sustainability and social design. Eva Brandt and Thomas Binder will be instrumental in supporting research and knowledge building in those areas. Rector Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen is delighted with the new professorships:

- I am very pleased that Thomas and Eva are coming in. They both bring competences that are crucial to our strategic focus on play, sustainability and social design. We installed Helle Marie Skovbjerg as Denmark’s first professor of play in early 2018 and with Thomas and Eva, we strengthen our senior research tier even further, said Rector Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen.

Together Thomas Binder and Eva Brandt have established an international Master’s Degree in co-design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK) and the Centre for Co-Design Research (CODE). Both held professorships (MSO) in co-design at KADK. Eva Brandt studies democratic design; including how designers and design researchers through various methods and an experimental approach may create design and innovation processes that can produce new images of the existing and explore new futures with citizens and with private and public entities.

Thomas Binder has been part of Centre for Co-Design Research (CODE) for years. Here Thomas has worked with design anthropology and open-ended design experiments with focus on subjects such as applied sustainability. His research includes contributions to methods and approaches in experimental design research.

The focus areas
 Design School Kolding launched a brand new Master’s Degree in 2018, which includes classic design skills with cross-sectoral specialisation. Students choose their specialisation from one of three areas: Design for People, Design for Planet and Design for Play.

Eva Brandt will be part of supporting the knowledge building and the degree in Design for People, which is already part of a social design partnership agreement with a number of municipalities. Thomas Binder will strengthen the research environment in sustainability at Design for Planet – a field the school has worked in for years – not least in relation to the fashion industry.

Welcome to the school!