Design factory

The Designfabrik Coburg is an experimental location on the former slaughterhouse site. In a converted slaughterhouse, an open, dynamic space is being created that serves as a real laboratory for new forms of exchange, collaboration and knowledge transfer. The focus is on its function as an interface between the Faculty of Design + Building and the public. The aim is to translate design and academic content into accessible, tangible formats and at the same time to feed impulses from society, practice and (sub)culture back into the university. The Designfabrik thus sees itself as a transfer space that not only imparts knowledge, but actively develops it further. Conceptually, the Designfabrik deliberately oscillates between a museum and a (sub)cultural approach. Curated exhibitions, structured mediation formats and discursive events stand alongside open, experimental and low-threshold uses. This tension between institutional order and free appropriation is deliberate and forms the core of the concept.

The special location on the Schlachthof site reinforces this approach. The former production site is gradually being transformed into a space for design, exchange and cultural practice – from exhibitions and events to public interventions. The working method of the Designfabrik is deliberately process-oriented. Instead of focusing on completed results, the emphasis is on experimentation, testing and iterative further development. Formats are created in exchange with students, external partners and civil society actors and are continuously adapted. This openness makes it possible to react to current issues and test new forms of collaboration. The Designfabrik sees itself as a place in the making: a hybrid space between museum, workshop and social meeting place that enables new forms of knowledge transfer by combining design, science and social participation. A strong partner at our side is the Coburg Design Forum Upper Franconia.

Speaking of "workshop": The CREAPOLIS Makerspace, an open workshop at Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts, is just a stone's throw away.

Added value for students
For you as students, the Designfabrik offers direct added value as an extended learning and experience space. You can use the space for final presentations, exhibitions and experimental project formats and make your work visible in a public context. At the same time, the open structure opens up opportunities for independent appropriation – for example through interventions, self-organized formats or collaborative projects. Social life also has its place here: events and the student council's "party life" help to establish the Designfabrik as a lively meeting place that combines study, practice and community.

"For us, the Designfabrik is the place where ideas become reality, without the usual institutional boundaries. Here we can try out things that often get stuck at the university. But what makes the Designfabrik special above all is the trust: We are given space, responsibility and support at the same time. This gives us the freedom to be bold and really create. An added value that not only the student society needs. Thank you for that!"
Jonas Reißig / interior design student / student coordinator of the Faculty of Design+Building student council

"With this type of collaboration or with these happenings, which you certainly wouldn't normally expect from a city with 40,000 inhabitants and would rather classify in larger metropolitan areas, we generate exactly that. So we keep these target groups with us and we bring people from different backgrounds together – creatives, business people, students and when people from different groups meet, progress usually happens."

Eric Rösner / Business development agency of the city of Coburg

[…] For me, the Designfabrik is exactly what Coburg needs – this urban atmosphere. You feel like you're in a real big city. It's a bit of a Berlin feeling, incredibly artistic. […]

Antoinetta Bafas / Cultural Officer of the City of Coburg

The design factory is part of the CREAPOLIS + design project, funded as part of the federal-state initiative "Innovative University"

• Live painting with Anna Deller-Yee: The design factory becomes an art studio | Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts
• Impulses for building turnaround and transformative, sustainable urban development | Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts
• The CREATRIUM: A covered real-world laboratory for the Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts | Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts
• A stage for the Faculty of Design + Building | Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts

The Designfabrik also has its own channel on Instagram!