How can train stations be designed so that people enjoy using them? What do signposts have to look like so that everyone can decipher them quickly? And how does a bicycle have to be designed so that it is easy and safe to use and at the same time aesthetically appealing? The new Offenbach Institute for Mobility Design, which opened on Thursday evening, wants to work on and answer such questions. The Institute of the University of Design is located in the office building called the cube at Berliner Straße 75. The institute is headed by Professors Kai Vöckler and Peter Eckard. In his opening speech, university president Bernd Kracke called the institute a “completely new component in the repertoire of research and teaching at the University of Design”. The central task of the new institute is to use design to help create human-friendly mobility, as Eckart and Vöckler say. In view of climate change, it is also clear that this must be a mobility that no longer focuses on the car.
The two leaders rely on design researchers and interdisciplinary teams who develop innovative methods and strategies for sustainable mobility design. The new institute brings together the research and teaching focus on mobility of the university’s professorships for integrative design and urban design. The end result should be sustainable mobility, the use of which becomes “a positive experience” through the design. This includes making this use easily accessible, more efficient, more pleasant and more visible. In order to find out how best to achieve this, the institute employees also use the possibilities of virtual reality. They use these to test how a subway station should be designed to give passengers a pleasant feeling. The institute’s work also brings to light some very tangible findings, such as the fact that wooden benches have a significantly more positive effect compared to metal or concrete seats.
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