BI at Berlin Design Week 2025
Punk & Participation
Communication design in dialogue with the today’s challenges
What opportunities do young communication designers see to facilitate a dialogue about thechallenges of our zeitgeist? And how can design interrogate wicked problems, creating narratives that spotlight their underlying causes?
‘Punk & Participation’ leverages research for and through design to gain insights into how storytelling can foster conversations and shed light on discussions of relevance for a generation of young designers. The topics range from very personal experiences, such as the promotion of misleading body perceptions among young women, to wicked problems, such as the fight against fake news in increasingly authoritarian systems.
The prototypical responses (and new questions raised) reveal a wide range of outputs, from physical installations to virtual experiences. All projects challenged the student researchers to rethink and integrate the elements of punk— understood as passionate protest—and participation—reflecting contribution towards societal integration—into their work.
‘Punk & Participation’ takes place concurrently with the exhibitions ‘A Seat at the Table’ and ‘Constructive Contingencies’ on the campus of the International University of Applied Sciences Berlin.
A Seat at The Table!
How can rural and urban spaces – both physical and virtual – be envisioned to cultivate democratic communities?
How can we embody democracy spatially? The exhibition explores the principles of democratic design, asking who designs, for whom, and how can it be ensured that spaces and places are accessible, inclusive, and representative of diverse voices.
A Seat at the Table! engages with the topic through a multidisciplinary approach – combining graphic design, architecture, and interior architecture – and collaborates with Berlin- and Brandenburg-based organizations and local initiatives that represent marginalized groups, including both human and non-human communities.
This exhibition is about power – its presence, absence and distribution. It is about space, both physical and metaphorical, and the barriers we create in it. The table is a metaphor: of assemblage, negotiation, inclusion, but also exclusion. The spatial and visual explorations gathered in this exhibition confront these contradictions. A Seat at the Table! is an invitation. To rethink. To remake. To rebuild. It reminds us that tables are not neutral – they are created, like the systems they represent, for a purpose.
So who will you free up a seat for?
Constructive Contingencies
Cuban architecture beyond the constraints of conformity
This exhibition highlights the resilience of independent architectural practices in Cuba, developed in response to legal, economic, and socio-political challenges.
In 2021, the Cuban government enacted a law officially recognizing only state-sponsored architecture, effectively ending a decade of ambiguous “a-legality.” Despite this restriction, some independent architects have continued to operate.
The research conducted in 2024 at Berlin International involved fieldwork in Cuba, including site visits, interviews, and the collection of articles, to explore the condition of independent architecture from 1952 to the present.
The exhibition amplifies often-overlooked voices, showcasing a new generation of Cuban architects whose innovative approaches challenge dominant architectural narratives.
