What this article is about:
From artificial intelligence to new ways of living together and European values: students on the Master’s programme in Strategic Design at SRH University demonstrate how design makes complex issues of the future more tangible, opens up new perspectives and drives social change.
How do we want to live in the future? What role should artificial intelligence play in our everyday lives? What unites us as a society? And how can we translate our values into concrete action?
These questions call for new perspectives, critical thinking and the courage to challenge established ideas. This is precisely where the ‘Strategic Design’ degree programme comes in: design is understood not merely as the creation of products, but as a tool for examining complex challenges, envisioning alternative futures and actively shaping processes of change. Students on the Master’s programme in Strategic Design at SRH University demonstrated how this might work in practice during three interactive workshops at Futurium Berlin and at the FORM / FUTURE design conference at the former Berlin-Tempelhof Airport. Four experiences with one thing in common: the future does not simply happen by itself. We can shape it together.
What happens if we stop just talking about artificial intelligence and instead explore its implications together? This was the question that the Master’s students explored during the ‘Open Lab Nights’ at Futurium Berlin. They developed three interactive workshops that teach AI literacy in a new way: not merely by explaining technological concepts, but through playful experiences, speculative scenarios and facilitated discussions.
The focus was on the realisation that dealing competently with AI means more than simply understanding how it works. It is also about questioning its limitations, weighing up possible consequences and making informed decisions about the role the technology should play in our lives. The three workshops approached this topic from different perspectives.
The ‘Fragrance of Tomorrow’ workshop invited participants to step into the future and make decisions that would influence the life of a fictional child in a world shaped by AI. The scenario highlighted how quickly seemingly simple questions about technological possibilities lead to considerations such as: Who bears responsibility? What opportunities do we want to seize? Where must we set limits to preserve human agency? By experiencing the potential consequences, AI was perceived not only as a technological innovation, but also as an ethical and societal challenge requiring active engagement.
How should AI be used in a city like Berlin? And who should decide on this? Future Kaleidoscope turned these questions into a strategy game on AI governance. Together, the participants discussed and decided how artificial intelligence could be integrated into sectors such as education, healthcare and the legal system. It became clear that technological decisions are always also societal decisions. Different interests, values and expectations must be negotiated.
A desirable future cannot, therefore, simply be predicted; on the contrary, it must be developed collectively. The workshop demonstrated how strategic design can create spaces for such negotiation processes. Abstract debates about regulation and technology gave way to concrete scenarios in which different perspectives came together.
Whilst the first two workshops focused on responsibility and societal decision-making processes, ‘Love Mediated’ turned its attention to a particularly personal level: relationships, identity and human connection. Participants explored the question of how AI might enrich or fundamentally change the way we relate to one another. What role do we want to grant intelligent systems in our emotional lives? What defines human closeness? And which aspects of our relationships should we consciously shape ourselves?
The workshop provided a space to discuss different ideas and possible visions of the future. The aim was not to provide definitive answers, but to ask the right questions and reflect on one’s own stance.
These workshops had been initiated as part of a comprehensive design research process that had been underway since October 2025. As part of this, the students repeatedly engaged with academic literature, conducted interviews with visitors to the Futurium and AI experts, and supplemented their findings with surveys. Building on this foundation, they developed concepts and prototypes, which were ultimately transformed into interactive experiences for a wide audience.
In this way, the project combined research, experimentation and social dialogue. The work was supervised by Prof. Julia Leihener and Prof. Katrin Androschin. Special thanks also go to the Futurium – in particular David Weigend, Kirstin Ackermann and the whole team – for their collaboration.
The result demonstrates how strategic design can make complex topics accessible: by enabling people not only to receive information, but also to explore different perspectives for themselves, make decisions and engage in dialogue with one another.
The FORM / FUTURE conference also highlighted the fact that design extends far beyond the development of individual products. In the iconic surroundings of the former Berlin-Tempelhof Airport, perspectives from the worlds of design, business, society and politics came together. The students took the opportunity to present their projects alongside other Berlin-based design colleges and institutions. The focus was on two innovation projects that explore, in different ways, how design can drive social change.
Freedom, democracy, solidarity and human dignity define Europe’s identity. But how can such abstract values be brought to life in everyday life? In collaboration with the European Commission, the students developed a project that explores how European values can be translated into concrete experiences and meaningful interactions. This approach offers a new perspective on the communication of values: rather than merely explaining them in abstract terms, the aim is to create situations in which people can experience and reflect on their significance for themselves. Design thus becomes the link between principles and personal experiences.
How would our everyday lives, our cities and our communities change if we reimagined the traditional boundaries between work and private life?
This is the question explored by the speculative design project ‘Live After Work’, developed in collaboration with the VBKI. It examines alternative visions of how work shapes the way we live together and what new possibilities might arise if established ways of life were challenged. Speculative design creates space for thought experiments: it envisions possible futures, opens up discussion about their consequences and helps to highlight assumptions that often go unquestioned in everyday life.
Whether it is artificial intelligence, European values or the future of our working and living environments: the projects undertaken by SRH students demonstrate that social change begins where people not only discuss new possibilities, but explore them together.
Strategic Design combines research with design, critical reflection with practical experience, and individual perspectives with social dialogue. It creates spaces where complex questions become understandable, different viewpoints come together, and alternative futures become imaginable.
One insight ran through all the events: AI literacy is not just about understanding how technology works. It also means questioning AI, helping to shape it and deciding where we want to take it.
