The purpose of this study is to explain the process of designing the architecture of StrangeSpaces, an itinerant festival for transcultural performing arts groups or artists which starts from the original idea and terminates with the description of a possible structure. The process of designing StrangeSpaces is based on an investigation on the transcultural performing art’s field and on conversations with experts, which together transformed the original general idea of a festival, into the specific architecture of the StrangeSpaces festival. The investigation resulted in a personal definition of ”transcultural performing arts”, that subsequently led to the identifications of three elements of transculturalism which define the festival’s goals as ”encounter with the other” in multiples and different yet equal levels. Another result of this investigation is the contextualization of StrangeSpaces in the contemporary international cultural politics. In fact, the transcultural encounter and exchange can be viewed as a possible response to the increasing need of sustainable international performing art in local, national and European cultural communities. The conversations with experts in the field of international performing arts complemented the investigation, contributing to the ideological principles of StrangeSpaces, such as anti-racism and anti-colonialism, as well as to a model of democratic and sustainable design, in which multilingualism and cosmopolitan aspects of the society are essential cues. The result of the study is a design of the architecture of three versions of StrangeSpaces, an itinerant transcultural performing arts festival that is born to be a space, a free place where people play, exchange roles, art, experience starting from their own culture, but reaching and reflecting into the other, mirroring a society of sustainable diversity.

The subject of the diploma thesis is design and structural analysis of loadbearing steel structure of observation tower, which is located southeast of Černá Hora, township Blansko. The design is processed in two options. Parts of the thesis are engineering report, structural design report for both of the options and graphical documentation in specified range. The structure’s height is 25.3 m and maximal ground plan dimension is 6 x 6 m. Steel grade S355 was chosen as main material. The sub-objectives of the structural analysis are load effects calculations (permanent load, imposed load and climatic load), entering of loads to the calculation model and calculation of internal forces and deformations. An assessment of the supporting elements and selected joints is also included. There are dynamic design features considered in the calculation. All calculations were performed in accordance with valid ČSN EN standards.

Abstract                                                    This thesis provides an in-depth research of five VR suppliers working with creating VR experiences targeted to elderly within the elder care sector in Sweden. Furthermore, a technological knowledge gap between elderly and VR technology are researched. The focus of this thesis is therefore how VR suppliers, as early adopters, design VR experiences to elderly, as digital immigrants. To investigate the chosen topics, two research questions was formulated; RQ1. How do VR suppliers design a VR experience targeted to digital immigrants within the elderly care sector? RQ2. How do VR suppliers, as early adopters, bridge the digital gap between VR-technology and digital immigrants?  This thesis constitutes of a qualitative research where the empirical findings are based on interviews with the VR suppliers. The research took an inductive approach in order to get close to the respondents and interpret their realities. Theories about Customer experience, Value, Value Co-creation, Digital immigrants and Early and Late adopters, have thereafter helped to connect the empirical findings with aspects within these theories, to further understand important aspects for the VR suppliers when they design their VR experiences.  The results of the study present the aspects that are important to take under consideration when VR suppliers design their VR experiences towards elderly within the elder care sector. A model showing the steps when designing the VR experience has been provided and constitutes of identifying needs, customize the service, create trust and security, set the environment, inform and educate personnel, handling impairments and bridging the gap. Furthermore, the participants confirmed a knowledge gap within technology amongst elderly and that there is a need to bridge the gap in order for the VR service to be successfully implemented.

Social media is an integrated part of our everyday life. Every user on social media could be a possible customer. The number of users have generated new possibilities for companies to use social media as a tool for marketing. Companies can therefore be more visible as well as they can broaden their scope. Which makes the design of advertisements for social media marketing an important aspect to consider. Therefore, it is crucial for advertisements to be designed in such a way that it stands out from the social media feed and captures the user’s attention. The intention of the design should clearly communicate sender, colors and taglines with its purpose to ensure that the potential customers receive the advertisements message. The focus of this study is to create an increased understanding of how to design digital advertisements for social media, that is by determining principles, guidelines and factors underlying the design. To increase understanding about the design of advertisements on social media, we conducted seven semi-structured interviews. We found that the design of advertisement is mostly made up of perceived and unspoken principles, guidelines and factors. The findings show that they all are relevant when designing an advertisement on social media. When creating advertisements for social media a crucial part is to capture customers' attention and enable purchase intention, which points to the importance of the advertisement’s design.

Today’s generation is born with digital devices like computers, tablets, smartphones, and gaming consoles. Children’s passive engagement with digital mediums (digital devices and the content they offer) has become a primary concern for parents because it limits children’s learning opportunities through physical play. In this digital age, we cannot completely take away these devices from children’s sight. Still, we can create more situations and contexts that encourage children to reduce their time with digital mediums and/or convert children’s passive engagement into an active engagement. This research-informed design project aimed to understand children’s (aged 8-11) motivations, aspirations, likes, dislikes, and engagement with different physical and digital activities in their daily lives. Learning from different phases of the design process was applied to design a proposal that helps increase children’s physical play during their engagement with digital activity. Method: Findings from the exploratory research led to a few opportunity areas, which were further investigated using research through the prototyping method. User personas, their needs, and their involvement in different activities inspired me to define a few design principles I followed throughout the project to evaluate my design decisions. I set my initial research question as “How might we integrate ‘digital mediums’ with the qualities of ‘physical play’ to provide our children more exciting growth opportunities.” I could probe, test, observe, learn, and finally prototype a few scenarios that enabled children’s physical play during the digital activity. Result: The final concept is “animo- A tool to engage children in a storytelling activity through physical play.” The concept combined children’s current interest in digital mediums with their interests in the creative activity of drawing and doodling. It creates opportunities for children to build the creation by COMBINING two or more objects or mediums, by ENGAGING in physical play and/or with the surrounding, and SHARING the creation that increases their social interactions. Children learn drawing, handwriting, animation, and storytelling skills. They become more curious, observant and notice more the living and non-living things. Bringing feelings and emotions to their drawings increases their expressive and imaginative abilities. They develop empathy, love, and care by sharing their creation with others. Small recognitions of their creation give them a sense of being noticed and encourages them to explore more. Animo helps children learn storytelling through animation, but more than that, it exposes them to the infinite possibilities of learning through physical play.

The master’s thesis designs and checks the reinforced concrete tanks of sewage plant. Part of this thesis are also drawings. Tanks are designed as a watertight underground structure with aspect on standards and watertight function. Foundation slab and concrete walls were designed according to ultimate and serviceability limit states. The thesis includes design of reinforcement according to non-force effects in early stage. The structure is checked also to loss of equilibrium of a structure due to uplift by vertical actions from water pressure.

The contradictory setting between the principles and practice in the contemporary school system affects everyday classrooms by compromising the learning environment based on core educational values. The challenges arising from the contradictions are also reflected in the digitalization of education. While physical materials have established an intuitive learning experience and are familiarized with the standard organization of learning, the development of digital materials has been driven by innovation instead of fundamental educational values.  This thesis builds a theoretical foundation for promoting contemporary educational values based on pedagogical approaches and learning theories. By using interaction design methods, the values are transformed into concrete manifestations and evaluated through an iterative design process. The four strategies that emerged from the design process aim to transform the learning experience of digital materials from content-focused to learning-focused. The strategies’ purpose is to support students’ metacognitive development by adapting the principles of constructivist learning theory and student-driven education practices to the design of digital learning materials.    In addition to the proposed strategies, this thesis aims to inspire future designers developing digital learning materials to consider the core values of education and the mentality towards learning they aspire to manifest through their design work.

The project oh high school, located on the outskirts of Barcelona on site, where plain seashore turns into upland. The project encourages the potencial of its location. New building structures form the public space, which becomes the centre of the distrikt.

In the current climate crisis, creating a symbiotic collaboration between all members of an ecosystem has become a prominent topic. By reevaluating human-centered methodologies through a cultural probe and an orienting activity, I address notions of collaboration, cohabitation and extending one’s body beyond the skin. I explore the concept of care in human-plant relationships, along with understanding the trouble with designing for and with care in the context of human-nature-technology kinship. The cultural probe, through its ambiguity, has prompted reflections on care and multispecies kinship, whereas the orienting activity has been an attempt to potentially shift to a non-anthropocentric perspective. A materialization of speculative thinking, these activities are a first step in challenging human exceptionalism, a new approach to viewing the human as decentered in design. This paper positions care as a premise in addressing human-centered methodologies to include non-human actors, with prototypes and speculative design as techniques that facilitate approaching a challenging and complex topic as one of more-than-human assemblages. / I den nuvarande klimatkrisen har skapandet av symbiotiska sammarbeten mellan alla deltagare av ett ekosystem blivit ett viktigt ämne. Genom att omvärdera människocentrerade metodiker genom en cultural probe och en orienterande aktivitet adresserar jag idéer om sammarbete, samlevnad och förlängningen av ens kropp bortom huden. Jag utforskar konceptet handomtagande i människo-plant-relationer tillsammans med förståelsen för mödorna med att designa för och med handomtagande i kontexten människa-natur-teknologi-släktskap. En cultural probe har genom dess tvetydighet drivit reflektioner kring handomtagande och mångfaldsläktskap, där den orienterade aktiviteten var ett försök till ett potentiellt shifte till ett icke-antropocentriskt perspektiv. Dessa aktiviteter, som är material från spekulativt tänkade, är ett tillvägagångasätt och första steg i att utmana människocenterad exceptionalism i design. Denna artikel positionerar handomtagande som en premiss i adresserandet av människocentrerade metodiker till att inkludera icke-mänskliga aktörer genom användandet av prototyper och spekulativ design som underlättande tekniker till utmaningar och komplexa ämnen som mer-än-mänskliga församlingar.

Die Konzeption und Durchführung komplexer und auf Innovation ausgerichteter Produktentwicklungsprojekte ist ein fester und wesentlicher Bestandteil des Curriculums im Studiengang M.A. Produktgestaltung an der Fakultät Gestaltung der HTW-Dresden. Praxisnah und in möglichst authentischen Entwicklungsumgebungen wird in Form eines Kooperationsprojekts eine konkrete Aufgabe für ein Unternehmen bearbeitet. Für die Unternehmen sind solche Projekte Teil ihrer mehr oder weniger bereits etablierten kollaborativen Wertschöpfungsnetzwerke. Im gegenteiligen Fall werden solche Modelle von unserer Seite her an die Unternehmen herangetragen und diskutiert. In der Regel entstehen an die Semesterzeiten gebundene und ergebnisoffene Machbarkeitsstudien. Die Studierenden erhalten im Gegenzug die Möglichkeit, ihr theoretisches Wissen ganz eng an der Wirklichkeit zu üben, entsprechende Erfahrungen zu sammeln und sich über solche Projekte für die spätere Berufspraxis zu empfehlen. Die Fakultät Gestaltung hat in diesem Sinne bereits mit einer Vielzahl von Kooperationspartnern zusammengearbeitet und sehr viel positive Erfahrung sammeln können Das Projekt mit dem Arbeitstitel \"Abkantmaschine für die Industrie 4.0\" wurde für die Bystronic AG in Gotha/Thüringen erarbeitet. Die Bystronic AG ist Tochter eines schweizer Unternehmens und stellt Laserstrahlschneid-, Wasserstrahlschneid- und Abkantmaschinen her. / The design and implementation of complex and geared to innovation product development projects is an integral and essential part of the curriculum in the course MA Product design at the Design Faculty of HTW Dresden. Practical and in authentic development environments a specific task is processed for a company in the form of a cooperation project. For companies, such projects are part of their more or less established collaborative value networks. In the opposite case, such models are brought and discussed by our side to companies. Usually caused bound to the semester dates and open-ended feasibility studies. The students receive in return the opportunity to practice their theoretical knowledge very closely to reality, to gain experience and to advise on such projects in their later professional applications and practice. The Faculty of Design has worked in this sense, with a number of partners and gained a lot of positive experience. The project with the working title \"pressbrake for industry 4.0\" has been developed for Bystronic AG in Gotha/Thuringia. The Bystronic AG is a subsidiary of a Swiss company and produces laser cutting and waterjet systems as well as pressbrakes.