Dr. Harald Gruendl

Dr. habil. Harald Gruendl is designer, design theorist and curator. He is the founder of the IDRV – Institute of Design Research Vienna and managing partner at EOOS Design. He was Visiting Professor for Industrial Design at the Shi-Chien University Taipei and the HFBK Hamburg. Since 2018 he hosts a PhD seminar at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. His current research focuses on transition design for complex systems. In 2015 and 2017 he was guest curator of the Vienna Biennale. From 2016 to 2018 he was co-curator of the CityFactory, a “real-time” research laboratory for new fields of work in the creative industries. With the IDRV Harald edited and co-authored several books, including “Tools for the Design Revolution” (Niggli, 2014). Mail to Harald

 

Ronja Grossar

Ronja Grossar holds a master in Creative Direction from the Pforzheim University as well as a degree in Industrial Design from the Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel. In 2017 she joined the Fraunhofer Center for Responsible Research and Innovation, CeRRI in Berlin as a research associate. There she led research projects on participation, sustainable consumption, and the value of social work. From 2018 to 2019 she was a lecturer on Gender & Diversity in R&D at the Berlin University of Technology. 2022 she teached at University of Applied Arts Vienna about Design for the Circular Economy. Having already been part of the IDRV team during her studies, Ronja has been back at the Institute since 2021.  Mail to Ronja

 

Zhe Sun

Zhe Sun is a multidisciplinary design researcher. She holds a master’s degree in design history and theory and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from Tongji University. She studied team collaboration in interdisciplinary design courses through a quantified cognitive approach. She is a contributor to magazines, including the Type, The Art Newspaper China, and Wallpaper, focusing on collective design, AI art, and art market. She is now a Ph.D. candidate at Tongji University and a visiting Ph.D. student at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her research topic is about defining an alternative framework for design collaboration within the context of ecological crisis. Mail to Zeh

 

Felix Reiterer

Felix is a digital designer and design researcher who holds masters degrees in digital design from FH St.Pölten and creative business processes from CBS Copenhagen. He worked for design bureaus in Copenhagen on projects about circular business models, playful research surveys and speculative design solutions, before he founded felije, a studio for technology, design and experimental media. In his work he focuses on the intersection between design, art and science, to convey information in more engaging ways, for example by creating generative processes to turn environmental data into physical objects. In 2023 he joined the IDRV as a support to digitalize the circular design rules and is now working on an FFG research project about the implementation of circular design among businesses and designers in Austria. Mail to Felix

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IDRV-Network

Dr. Martina Fineder

Martina Fineder holds a master in Product Design from the University of Applied Arts and a doctorate in Cultural Science from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Combining the qualitative research methodologies from these disciplines, her work focuses on socially and ecologically motivated design and consumer cultures. She works with national and international design universities and museums, including the MAK in Vienna and the Bauhaus-University in Weimar. Her most recent book is „Nomadic Furniture – New Liberated Living?“. In 2017 Martina joined the IRDV, heading the reseach project „Commons as a way of thinking and innovation in design“, funded by the Austrian Council for Research and Technology Development. Mail to Martina

Ulrike Haele

Ulrike Haele holds a master in Communication Science and Political Sciences from the University of Vienna as well as a degree in Industrial Design from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. She is a research associate at the IDRV since 2010. For the MAK Design Lab she conceived the interventions on the subject of “positive change”, and together with the MAK the dynamic mediation-concept. She headed the research project „How Should We Live?” funded by the programme ”Sparkling Science. Science linking with school”. From 2016-2018 she co-curated the StadtFabrik (CityFactory) research laboratory for new fields of work in the creative industries, comprising a major exhibition within the framework of the Vienna Biennale 2017. Since 2015 she is a lecturer at the New Design University, focusing on design for sustainability. Her current research focus lies on Post-Growth Design. Mail to Ulrike

Marco Kellhammer

Marco Kellhammer did his BA in Industrial Design at the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück and studied one term abroad at the PUC Rio de Janeiro before becoming part of the IDRV’s team in 2012. Here he was working on the Tools for the Design Revolution exhibition, publication and lecture series. In 2015 he proceeded his studies at the Technische Universität München (TUM) where he was graduated from in 2018 with a Master of Science in Industrial Design. He focuses on research and design for a socially and ecologically sustainable future according to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Mail to Marco

 

Viktoria Lea Heinrich

Viktoria Lea Heinrich studied product design at the University of Applied Sciences in Dresden and Art and Design Studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen focusing on social and participatory design. At the IDRV she was part of the CityFactory research laboratory for new fields of creative work (since 2016) and was involved as curatorial assistant in the Vienna Biennale exhibition CityFactory: New Work. New Design in 2017. She worked as curatorial assistant (design collection) at the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna and as curator at the HfG-Archiv Ulm. Viktoria Lea Heinrich has been a research associate and doctoral candidate in the field of Design Theory and Practice in the Product Design Department at the Kunsthochule Kassel since October 2021.

 

Dr. Martina Mara

Martina Mara studied Journalism and Communication science at the University of Vienna and worked as a print journalist before becoming part of the IDRV’s scholarly staff in 2008. She is a researcher in the fields of social media, technology, and sustainability. Currently, she is working for the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz, Austria, and teaching at the University of Art and Design Linz. In 2018 Martina Mara was appointed as Professor for robot psychology at the Institute of Technology, Johannes Kepler University Linz.

 

Christina Naegele

Christina Naegele joined the IDRV’s team in January 2012. She studied cultural science and aesthetics at the University of Hildesheim and has since been working in the field of curatorial practice and education at the threshold of fine arts, architecture and design. Her focus lies on collaborative strategies as well as projects with thematic approaches and interdisciplinary discourses.