Whitecliffe University of Applied Sciences Joins Berlin Design Week 2026
From 28 to 31 May 2026, Whitecliffe University of Applied Sciences will take part in Berlin Design Week 2026, opening its Berlin campus at Salzufer 6 to visitors, design professionals, students, and the wider public.
As part of this year’s programme, the university will present three projects that bring together architecture, communication design, graphic design, interior design, research, material experimentation, and student-led speculative thinking.
The exhibitions and installation show how design can question the present, imagine alternative futures, and make complex ideas visible through space, objects, systems, and interaction.
Event Details
Event: Berlin Design Week 2026 at Whitecliffe University of Applied Sciences
Dates: 28–31 May 2026
Location: Whitecliffe University of Applied Sciences, Salzufer 6, 10587 Berlin
Opening hours:
Thursday, 28 May: 12:00–23:00
Friday, 29 May: 12:00–20:00
Saturday, 30 May: 12:00–20:00
Sunday, 31 May: 12:00–20:00
Three Projects on Campus
During Berlin Design Week, visitors can experience three projects at the Whitecliffe campus:
- 2051 (Everything Turned Out Rather Well)
- Whitecliffe in Perspective
- Let the Play Begin – Communication Design in Games
Each project explores a different role of design: as a tool for imagining futures, shaping perception, and creating meaningful communication through play and material experimentation.
2051: Everything Turned Out Rather Well
2051 (Everything Turned Out Rather Well) invites visitors into speculative futures where the defining crises of the early 21st century — ecological collapse, social fragmentation, and political polarisation — have become distant memories.
Developed by students from the Interdisciplinary Design Project, the exhibition uses backcasting: a method that begins with a desired future and works backwards to identify the steps that could make it possible.
The students present five speculative visions rooted in specific sites across Berlin. These include ideas for transforming urban infrastructure, rethinking stadiums as democratic spaces, imagining new cultural models around water, reclaiming the A100, and preserving collective memory after a future Berlin flood.
Rather than treating the future only as a space of crisis, the exhibition approaches hope as a form of political agency. It asks what could happen if design was used not only to respond to problems, but also to imagine better systems of care, solidarity, and urban life.
Whitecliffe in Perspective
Whitecliffe in Perspective is a façade installation created by Prof. Javier Martín and Daniel Martín.
The work consists of a fragmented three-dimensional system distributed across the façade of the university campus at Salzufer 6. The installation becomes fully legible only from one specific viewpoint, using anamorphic principles to explore perception, orientation, and spatial communication.
The project combines digital modelling, material experimentation, and real-scale prototyping. It functions both as a public-facing installation and as a research prototype investigating how spatial systems influence perception and cognition.
By placing the work directly on the campus façade, the project connects the university building with the city and invites visitors to look at the site from a new perspective.
Let the Play Begin: Communication Design in Games
Let the Play Begin – Communication Design in Games is a collaboration between Whitecliffe University of Applied Sciences and the Turkish toy manufacturer Play-Toys.
Throughout the semester, international graphic design students explored toys and games as forms of visual communication. The project asked how young designers can use game concepts to express values, social questions, emotions, and rules to future generations.
Students worked with a wide range of techniques, including:
- 3D printing
- felt embroidery
- physical computing
- mold casting
- linocut typography
- blind embossing
- pop-up book editorial design
The resulting game and packaging prototypes address topics such as emotion regulation, fear of the dark, understanding nature, climate change, body dysmorphia, and women’s rights.
The exhibition shows how communication design can move beyond screens and printed formats into physical, playful, and interactive experiences.
Design as Research, Reflection, and Public Engagement
Whitecliffe’s participation in Berlin Design Week reflects the university’s applied and interdisciplinary approach to design education.
Across the three projects, students and professors engage with real-world questions through creative experimentation. The works connect academic research with public presentation, allowing visitors to experience how design thinking can take shape through objects, installations, prototypes, and spatial interventions.
The campus becomes more than an exhibition venue. It becomes a place where design is tested, discussed, and experienced in direct relation to the city.
Visit Whitecliffe During Berlin Design Week
Visitors are warmly invited to explore the exhibitions and installation at Whitecliffe University of Applied Sciences during Berlin Design Week 2026.
Whether you are interested in architecture, graphic design, communication design, interior design, speculative futures, or creative education, the programme offers an opportunity to experience the work of Whitecliffe students and professors in an open public setting.
Join us at Salzufer 6 from 28 to 31 May 2026.
Entry is free.
