HfG Karlsruhe Receives Funding for New Teaching and Research Programme “Circular School”

Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design has been awarded funding by the Foundation Innovation in Higher Education for its new teaching and research programme, Circular School. The project will begin on 1 July 2026 and will be funded for four years as part of the funding line “Die Welt ist mein Campus”.

With the Circular School, HfG Karlsruhe is developing a transversal study programme that reconfigures the relationship between teaching, artistic-design research, material practice and public engagement. At its core is the work with circular processes and so-called time-based materials: biological, bio-based, renewable or compostable raw materials whose cycles of formation, growth, use and reuse are also understood as models for new forms of studying and learning.

Building on the preparatory work of the Bio Design Lab, the Circular School responds to key ecological and societal challenges: climate change, resource consumption, biodiversity loss and the question of how design can assume responsibility in the future. From their first year of study onwards, students will be actively involved in research-based, material-practical and public formats. In doing so, the Circular School expands the conventional logic of seminars and semesters through multi-year project cycles, workshops, lecture series, summer schools, excursions, field trips and public programmes.

A particular focus lies on connecting the university, the city and the region. Through a mobile laboratory, the so-called Incubator, as well as through collaborations with regional and transregional partner institutions, an expanded space for learning and research will emerge both within and beyond the university. Local ecologies, bioregional resources, craft knowledge, circular value chains and social infrastructures will serve as starting points for design practice.

The Circular School is structured around several interlinked fields of work: Material Cultivating is responsible for establishing and supporting material-practical, biological and laboratory-related processes; Digital Garden Keeping develops analogue and digital infrastructures for documentation, archiving and knowledge-sharing; Bioregional Weaving connects the university, city, region, natural environments, cultural institutions and local initiatives. These areas are complemented by project coordination and programme and event management, which support the strategic, organisational and public implementation of the programme.

The aim of the Circular School is to translate ecological and social responsibility into design practice while developing a transferable model for an open, networked and experimental university. In this way, HfG Karlsruhe is exploring how higher education can be organised as a living system: in exchange with materials, places, partners and publics — and with students who are actively involved from the outset in developing new formats for learning and research.

The coordinated teaching programme of the Circular School is scheduled to launch in the winter semester 2026/27. Planned formats include Circular Studios, public lecture series, material-practical workshops, excursions, external campus formats, annual exhibitions, open-access documentation and an international summer school.

Facts
Duration: 07/2026 – 06/2030
Funding volume: €1,955,233.83
Project Coordination: Julia Ihls
Concept: Julia Ihls & Matthias Bruhn
Project Responsibility: HfG University Executive Board, represented by Rector Andreas Vogel
Contact: ed.ehurslrak-gfh(ta)loohcsralucric