Munich, 2011-2021

MHDS - Space for the future

From vision to reality: social design in a worldwide unique participation project

What does the future of social participation look like? What influence does space have on the development of new ideas around subjects such as education and the environment?

How can digital, virtual and physical space be combined and used?

How can a space in a central location in Germany's most expensive city be financed without user groups having to pay the money?

In a ten-year process, several groups of young people have ventured the experiment of creating a new space  to serve as an area of commitment and ideas for young engagement around topics such as education, ecology, and digitalization.

The result is the MHDS, the Munich House of Students, which is a hub for groups of young people without the financial means to pay the rents in a big city for their social projects.

The project was developed and implemented by the potential users themselves. Just like the development, the organisation of the space is also completely participatory and thus represents a unique model project worldwide. 

The space is conceptually designed as a social coworking space, which is virtually supplemented and expanded by numerous digital tools in addition to the physical space. 

User groups are youth organisations around the topic of education, start-ups of non-commercial apps as well as Fridays for Future.

My role in this project was to support the conception as a social design project, from theory to concrete elaboration and evaluation in the testing phase.
Mediation in the political realization by the City of Munich was also an important part of my work, which I fulfilled in my role as a board member of the Kreisjugendring München-Stadt at the time.

In the process of the opening, I developed a corporate design that is used for the space itself, as well as for print, web, and social media. The key challenge here was to create the design in such a way that it could be modified by the young users themselves with the help of flexible templates. This way, the users can easily create their own CI-compliant designs for all relevant domains, which supports the participatory character.

Furthermore, I developed a photographic language for the representation of the MHDS and carried out several photoshoots. These photos are complemented by my documentation on young participation, in which the stakeholders in the MHDS also play a role. In this way, I was able to document the development process of the project from the very beginning to the end. 

Munich, 2011-2021