We need critical students to make our world better

DS Academy this years’ newcomer at Designers’ Saturday gathers the best young Norwegian designers and invites companies to collaboration with students. Responsibility is their mutual theme.

DS Academy and this years’ theme was suggested by professor and architect Toni Kauppila, head of the Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at KHiO.

–I am extremely proud to have been able to bring together all the Norwegian higher education institutions in the respective design fields. This is something we hardly ever do, as we are in a way competitors as well in our sector. Yet, now during the DS Academy we have joint our forces to bring into foreground those issues that matter. The other part that I am extremely happy about is the so-called ‘co-op’, where we have invited some companies to join in to the DS Academy with an obligation to collaborate with students. This has been received very well, and will hopefully become a role model on how to facilitate a better dialogue between the different parties.

Kauppila says it is quite natural that the educational institutions and the next generation brings in a more experimental and critical voice to challenge the conventions in the industry.

–This has been highly appreciated and an important contribution at the international fairs, to forecast and to project the potential developments within the field. By establishing the DS Academy, we wish to strengthen this avantgarde discussion at the Norwegian design scene. We need to care about our practices and the way we run our industries, but more than ever before, we need to share our concerns and actions to make a difference. Therefore, we should seize the moment during an event like this, and take the responsibility, when we come together to socialize, to network and to make our businesses, and to mutually pursue the bigger goals for making our world a bit better.

See the event for Designers’ Saturday at KHiO