Appoint­ment to the tempo­rary profes­sor­ship in ​‘Design Theory and Design Research’

Since 1 March, Dr Gerhard M. Buurman has held the Chair of ​‘Scien­tific Foun­da­tions’, succee­ding Prof. Dr Georg Kneer. His rese­arch focuses on the fields of design theory and design research.

The subject of ​‘Design Theory’ prima­rily addresses issues rela­ting to content, metho­do­logy and design prac­tice. Essen­ti­ally, this concerns the prac­tical inter­play between ​“design AND science” and the future of ​“design AS science”. The subject area of ​“Design Rese­arch” then addresses the ques­tion of how the diffe­rent modes of thin­king and prac­tices of design and science can engage in a produc­tive dialogue. With the concep­tual reinter­pre­ta­tion of design tasks as rese­arch-based and problem-oriented rese­arch – and in view of the incre­asing importance of auto­mated and forma­lised ways of thin­king, plan­ning and desig­ning – deve­lo­p­ments are now emer­ging that we must examine both in general and with regard to the orien­ta­tion of our univer­sity. The module ​‘Scien­tific Foun­da­tions’ focuses on intro­du­cing scien­tific modes of thin­king and high­lighting possible/​necessary diffe­rences in rela­tion to our work in the fields of design and design practice.

Gerhard M. Buurman studied Indus­trial Design (Dipl. Des.) at the Univer­sity of GHS Essen (now Folk­wang Univer­sity of the Arts) from 1985 to 1993. In 1998, he was awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Philo­sophy (Dr. Phil.) by the Univer­sity of GHS Essen. His academic career took him from Linz on the Danube (Univer­sity of Art and Design Linz) via Zurich (Zurich Univer­sity of the Arts) and Pforz­heim (Pforz­heim Univer­sity – Design, Tech­no­logy, Busi­ness and Law) to us here at the HfG Schwä­bisch Gmünd.

Along­side his univer­sity duties, Gerhard M. Buurman conducts rese­arch at the private ​‘Insti­tute for Forms of Thought’ (Konstanz) into model theo­ries and contem­po­rary tech­nical, philo­so­phical and cyber­netic issues. For instance, the theme of ​‘ratio­na­lity’ and the future of our reason-guided thin­king and action was the focus of his inau­gural lecture. Here, he puts forward the thesis that the ongoing tech­no­lo­gi­sa­tion of our living envi­ron­ments is leading to a margi­na­li­sa­tion of ratio­na­lity, insofar as the latter is incre­asingly under pres­sure under condi­tions of growing comple­xity and poli­tical-economic dyna­mics, and becomes entan­gled in circum­s­tances that are diffi­cult to fathom.

Further insights into Gerhard M. Buurman’s academic perspec­tive, as well as an over­view of his publi­ca­tions and rese­arch, are available on his website:

Institut für Denkformen