Nicole Kind
What does a typical working day involve for you?
My working day varies between short-term day-to-day business and mail management and more long-term strategic work, such as currently the development and implementation of a new programme structure. The most important question to me, which I always have in the back of my mind, is what teaching, learning and research should look like in Industrial Design, now and in the future.
Over the course of the year there are some pleasant variations which, in addition to the above, shape my working days for a few weeks, such as my own teaching modules, the admissions exam, and in early summer, the students’ graduation accompanied by the big exhibition – our highlight of the year.
What motivates you?
What motivates me most as a teacher is to introduce young talented people to design, and to convey to them the value and responsibilities of our actions as designers of products.
It is fascinating to follow the development of individual students over the three years of their Bachelor’s programme. I also really enjoy seeing how our alumni develop professionally afterwards, and how they make an important contribution to our environment and society with their designs.
As Head of the Subject Area, I actively commit myself every day to ensuring a good setting and the best possible conditions for our staff and students so they can effectively tackle their tasks and projects in teaching, research and administration.
Who would you like to work with one day?
The MIT is an institution that fascinates me. I would like to work together with them, and by means of a concrete project, learn how the university functions and what could be transferable to the ZHdK.
With whom would you like to switch roles for half a year?
In the spirit of lifelong learning, I would find it appealing to become a student again, for example studying a term of Engineering, Environmental Science, or a Design discipline other than mine. I think that assuming this role for a while would be very rewarding and also change how I view my own teaching.
Where do you see the Department of Design in 2050?
I don’t know what our department will look like then, but I hope that the disciplines will flow into one another even more and that interdisciplinary education across the university will be a reality; that collaborative work on pressing topics will be more important than disciplinary thinking; that the skills at the Department of Design and partner institutions will be pooled and that this energy can be harnessed to contribute to a solution to the relevant problems of our environment.
