The exhibition shows how traditional materials, craftsmen and craft industries from the city of Vienna form a breeding ground for new designs. Werkstadt Vienna shows not only what happens when young designers are confronted by traditional techniques, but also how important local and regional production methods are as an engine of innovation.

A new, democratised culture of making appears thanks to the introduction of the 3D printer, thereby putting considerable pressure on the distinction between professional and amateur, principal and designer, and maker and user. In this connection, the artisanal method of the self-producing designer suddenly ceases to be an anachronism. Within The New Institute’s studio programme explicit attention will be focused in the coming period on these new work relations. There will also be a more detailed investigation of the future practice of the designer in a period in which, under terms like co-creation, the role of the user will be increasingly determinant for the process of designing and making.

Curator: Sophie Lovell, Studio Makkink Bey