Regenerative Design: The Weltmuseum as Laboratory for the Future

What can we learn from historical ethnological collection objects for shaping a sustainable future? In a collaboration between the Weltmuseum Wien and the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the ethnological museum is being reinterpreted: not merely as a repository for silent artefacts, but as a laboratory for future, globally sustainable lifestyles.



Students of the design theory course Design Revolution Now! at the Regenerative Design Lab of the University of Applied Arts are examining around 25 objects from the collection of the Weltmuseum Wien in order to derive regenerative design principles from them. The focus is on the question of how humans, animals, non-human organisms and nature jointly create worlds. In four thematic ‘islands,’ traditional views of the global North on knowledge, time, object status, and purpose are questioned and shifted. Contributions from design, transformation psychology, environmental law, and performance broaden the perspective and invite us to radically rethink our approach to consumption, design, and progress.



The exhibition Regenerative Design: The Weltmuseum Wien as a Lab for the Future at the Weltmuseum Wien and this accompanying publication provide exciting insights into the interdisciplinary research process that encompasses exhibition design, transformational psychology, natural law, and performance art.

A collaboration between the Weltmuseum Wien and the Regenerative Design Lab at the University of Applied Arts Vienna

Harald Gruendl, Institute of Design / Regenerative Design Lab, University of Applied Arts Vienna
Claudia Banz, Weltmusum Wien