Master of Science Design Research

About this program

The one-year Master program COOP Design Research offers an overview of the diversity of academic scholarship in this field and contributes to strengthening a research practice by the means provided by design. The program strives to integrate design and research as a transdisciplinary field between material studies, social sciences, design anthropology, cultural studies, technology studies, architecture and design history, and theory. The Program: Design (as) Research. What constitutes the knowledge cultures of design? How have designers’ concepts of knowledge changed, and what are the consequences? Is designing a research activity, and how do designers “do” research? The one-year COOP Design Research MSc integrates design and research as transdisciplinary fields at the intersection of design anthropology, material culture studies, architecture and design research, history and theory, as well as social sciences. The program critically engages with current concerns in design studies and architectural research, departing from the multiple modern legacies unfolding around the Bauhaus, as design’s status as a clearly defined discipline has been challenged along with the anthropocentric notion of its power to shape an exclusively man-made environment. In manifold ways, design as a knowledge culture still rests on modernist ideas of “world making”, of the creation of “artificial things”. The COOP Design Research MSc critically interrogates this expansive cultural, political and social practice which manifests itself in objects, systems and structures of everyday life. The program offers a learning space for reflecting and diffracting design’s theoretical and practical frameworks, the hegemonic ideologies and radical epistemological shifts affecting the practices of designers and architects, as well as the consequences for the environment and the earth. This includes a critical revision of design ideals rooted in euro-centric modernity, perceiving their entanglements with (post)colonial, capitalist patterns of resource exploitation, environmental and social injustice, as well as the urgency of placing them in the context of contemporary ecological and decolonial discourses and practices.

Required documents

General requirements for Master programs in Germany. Program-specific requirements are shown once you start a journey for this program.

• Certified copy of Bachelor's degree certificate
• Certified translation of Bachelor's degree certificate
• Certified transcript of records (all semesters)
• Valid passport (photo page copy)
• Tabular curriculum vitae (CV)

Academic requirements

Frequently asked questions

Static answers for the most common questions about applying to this program.

Country & application steps

Step by step, from choosing a federal state to your residence permit in Germany.