Research at AMD Akademie Mode & Design 

As Hochschule Fresenius’ Faculty of Design, AMD Akademie Mode & Design is continuously expanding the unity of research and teaching. It is precisely through research that teaching is given new impulses and students can experience the complexity of responsible thinking and acting in new areas. AMD follows the Humboldt ideal of joining research and teaching, therefore bringing science into a continuous debate with future generations. Theory and practice are entwined and lead to two research profiles:

  1. Artistic development projects (creative projects with theoretical foundation and reason) and
  2. research projects in theoretical subjects (design theory, aesthetics, fashion theory, visual science, business administration, etc.).

Our research is based on two fundamental goals: Freedom of research and joint research.  These goals are not a contradiction. After all, research clusters of all kinds prove just how well artistic development and theoretical research work together. Our professors pursue their unique research interests and meet in design-specific research focal points, thus forming clusters with different closely-knit structures.

Current research projects and plans at the AMD make use of the diversity and close cooperation between the various disciplines represented in the department. They range from creative design subjects such as fashion and interior design to economic and social science approaches and cultural studies and the humanities such as art theory and design history.

Current Projects (10/24)/Research news:

  • Project on how to deploy “3D-knitting in the context of mass customization”, led by Prof. Müller-Elsner, Prof. Krüger, Prof. Bersch, currently at the experimental stage.
  • Interdisciplinary project “Wellbeing” (Fresenius University): A proposol by two AMD professors (Blum and Hengst) is currently being evaluated by Prof. Stephan Wagner (Department of chemistry and biology), who leads the overall project.
  • Regular meetings in order to establish a permanent research unit in the field of habitation research are still being held at AMD Berlin (Prof. Hengst and Dipl.-Des. Winkler).
  • A workshop on “design and crises” is scheduled for December 13th (24) at AMD Berlin. (Concept by Prof. Hengst)
  • “Online Resale – European Study”, in collaboration, among others, with the School of Economics and Business Studies, Universidade Lusíada, Porto (Prof. Blum and Prof. Hengst).
  • EU-Projekt ‘Creative Europe’: Proposal with the working title ‘Planet C’, lead: AMD Dean Prof. Nägele and Prof. Claudia Ebert Hesse, in collaboration with – among others – the Forum of Slavic Cultures, the Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design, VIKO/Vinius and the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA).

Download current publications on AMD projects here

Research project Digital Marketplace

Research in design can have many faces. Even the external form is not comparable with other disciplines. This publication: “the marketplace-the future of education and sustainability in digital spaces” refers to the international Global Fashion Conference in 2022, which was hosted by AMD Akademie Mode & Design. The eponymous Marketplace was a part of the conference that provided a game-based platform for exchange, information and staging. Designed as a virtual space, houses with different architecture were provided for the topics. The external form already gave an indication of the information behind it. The so-called “townhall”, for example, was the space for international ethically-oriented initiatives. Start-up initiatives were presented in the greenhouse, while individual works by AMD students were shown in the house modeled on the heart muscle, which is based on the style of the famous architect Zahah Hadid. Zoom panels with an interactive character took place in the Meeting House. Access was via game-based technology.

In addition to the digital and wide-ranging presentation of the participants, the Marketplace as a research idea also opens up the opportunity for new teaching methods and game-based didactics as an educational format of the future.

Five research clusters shape the thematic profile of AMD: