Prof Andreas Kalweit / Industrial Design
Photo: UniService Transfer

Asking the right questions with creative thinking

Professor Andreas Kalweit wants to bring industry and design together

It all started with a wheelchair. "That was a key experience," says Professor Dipl.-Ing. Dipl.-Des. Andreas Kalweit and explains how he came to study Industrial Design. An apprenticeship as a metalworker formed the solid foundation with which he initially joined his parents' business, which he was later to take over. However, this was not his "thing", emphasises the Hüls native and immediately stresses that "after a few discussions" his parents unconditionally supported his son's path, which initially led him to the FH Niederrhein, where he studied mechanical engineering. He graduated with distinction in 1995, moved to Essen and went on to study industrial design until 2002.

It all started with a wheelchair

In the end, it was a wheelchair that he was supposed to design in mechanical engineering and which, no matter what design features the student tried to realise, always looked "bad". That was a kind of initial spark that led him to industrial design; a decision he would make again and again. Kalweit loves the design possibilities, in which he sees immense potential that the industry still needs to be convinced of.

Many companies see design as a cost centre at best, there is a lack of calculation methods and no one is able to show the share of success, but the designer knows that the first thing to do is to find out "what needs companies have". To this end, he is currently working on an exciting doctoral thesis in the Industrial Design section, which aims to find out how industrial designers and companies can come together

"Design can do much more, namely take an entire company to a new level. However, this requires a type of designer who credibly represents this claim and shows companies that although design costs something, the lack of design will be much more expensive"
(from: Peter F. Stephan in an interview / Revue für postheroisches Management/ Issue 8)

Kalweit knows from his own experience that a good education is the be-all and end-all
and "wants to enable students to think creatively".

He uses his multiple qualifications, particularly in the mediation between construction, design and production, as part of his teaching activities in order to prepare students for future requirements. Kalweit is familiar with the ever shorter product cycles and the highly dynamic markets in which designers operate.

Playing with the senses

And yet he wants to slow down. In this context, he recalls his own school life and talks about the experiences of his school-age daughter, for whom, in these "fast-moving times", more and more learning means that playing with the senses is neglected. And this is precisely where the appeal of industrial design lies. In an interview, Kalweit says in response to the question: "What qualifications do you expect from employees?" that they should above all "ask the right questions", by which he understands design as creative thinking that sets itself apart from mere replication without an idea of its own. It's about a philosophy that every designer brings to the creative process and which the client has to accept.

A long road that he has travelled with expertise. As early as 2006, he and three other editors published a "Handbook for Technical Product Design", in which he imparts knowledge about the properties of materials and processing methods for designers and engineers across disciplines.

E-mobility through theft-proof bicycles

In transfer, he values the exchange with colleagues from other faculties and the opportunity to report on transfer projects.

He is particularly interested in a project example on transport systems in urban areas and their safety.

For example, is it possible to design a theft-proof bicycle? This question would even interest the Düsseldorf-based academic personally. After his bike was stolen three times from outside his house, he now always carries it to his third-floor flat for security reasons. A solution is in the works.

Uwe Blass (interview from 31/05/2017)

Andreas Kalweit (*1968) is a qualified mechanical engineer and industrial designer with specialised training in craftsmanship, who uses his multiple qualifications at the interface between design and engineering for industry and in research.

He gained his many years of experience as a constructor, designer and entrepreneur as the owner of a design agency in numerous industrial projects for well-known, internationally active companies and as the owner of a traditional family manufactory.
Andreas Kalweit has been a professor of "Manufacturing & Material Science - specialising in construction technology and systems in design" at the University of Wuppertal since 2012. His research and work focuses on manufacturing and material technology, design systematics and innovation development for industrially manufactured products. He is a founding member of various institutes and is regularly active as a jury member, for example for the iF Design Award, the BRAUN Design Award and the CORE77 Award.

https://www.uwid.uni-wuppertal.de/uwid/professoreninnen.html?tx_mwuwidfeusersext_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=19&tx_mwuwidfeusersext_pi1%5Bview%5D=list

 

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