From 7 to 12 October 2025, Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle will be a guest at the Designblok Festival in Prague. Students and alumni will be showing their latest works.

Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle will be represented at the Festival Designblok in Prague, Czechia, from 7 to 12 October 2025. Three students and two graduates from the MA programmes of Multimedia Design, Industrial Design and Product Design/Ceramics and Glass will be presenting their current projects and MA theses. The Designblok exhibitions address current social issues and focus on the positions of both emerging and established designers.
At the Desgnblok, works by Valentin Behrendt, student in the Master's programme in Multimedia Design, Alessa Dresel, Master graduate in Product Design/Ceramics and Glass, Robin Forster, student in the Master's programme in Multimedia Design, Friedrich Gerlach, Master graduate in Industrial Design, and Marc Teuber, student in the Master's programme in Multimedia Design, will be shown, illustrating the broad spectrum of design training at BURG.

The exhibitors

Lignion

Designer: Valentin Behrendt
Study Programme: Multimedia Design

Lignion is a controller-based Virtual Reality racing game where players test Captain Nemo’s new air glider on the „mysterious island“. The test flight is a multi-sensory experience. With the specially designed controller, players can feel the cockpit through touch and vibrations. The goal is to deliver an immersive and thrilling flight that engages the whole body. Through a VR headset, the photorealistic game world can be explored.

Design by AI ans ME „Shapes from Noise“
Designer: Alessa Dresel 
Study Programme: Product Design/Ceramics and Glass
Project: Master thesis, 2025

A series of pepper mills – designed with AI and crafted by hand from fine porcelain. Modular tops and bottoms allow for 81 possible combinations. Keyword: curation. Is this the future of design with AI? Beneath the colorful surface, the project quietly addresses questions of resources, power, and responsibility – inviting us to rethink the role of the designer between data and material.

PortalVision
Designer: Robin Forster
Study Programme: Multimedia Design
Project: Spectacula, 2025

The immersive, audiovisual installation showcases a self-developed textile interface. Thanks to its accessible design, the installation invites visitors of all ages to physically interact, explore, and marvel. By pressing into the projection surface, users break through the fourth wall, dive into the depths of the oceans, discover visions in the flames, or receive distant messages from outer space. A single, decisive push at the center is enough to shift effortlessly between four unique worlds.

Beyond the Object
Designer: Friedrich Gerlach
Study Programme: Industrial Design
Project: Master thesis, 2025

What happens when material-driven design meets video documentation and the act of filming begins to shape the design process itself?
Fragments of Fair transforms fairground flooring and packaging waste using compression molding, combined with an aluminum seat surface and press-fit connections. A chair emerges that plays with pressure, color, texture, and material cycles.
Unbroken is made from recycled glass bottles, fused by heat and bent by gravity into a sculptural form. The edges act like lenses, revealing layered textures.
Lecrase explores leather waste as a structural material. Inspired by plywood, it stabilizes itself through folds, tension, and form.

Baumarkt
Designer: Marc Teuber 
Study Programme: Multimedia Design
Project: Hardware store/music video for SALÒ, 2025

In the 3D animated music video for Austrian musician SALÒ, a customer gets lost in a hardware store and despairs of finding help. But the only employee in sight involves him in a chaotic chase that leads deeper and deeper into a labyrinth of shelves, aisles, and departments. SALÒ‘s snotty punk sound hammers away at a playful DIY stop-motion look. Fast jump cuts ensure that by the end, both the customer and the viewer have a few screws loose.

Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle

Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle has a distinctive profile in the German university landscape. Featuring two departments, Art and Design, BURG has offered excellent conditions for education and study since 1915. With over 1,100 students, it is one of the largest universities of art and design in Germany. Visionary ideas and design are the focus of its 20-plus disciplines of study, alongside the development of practical professional skills. The university’s studio and workshop facilities are thoroughly equipped for learning and BURG is part of an active network of research institutes, institutions, and companies. Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle confers bachelor’s, master’s, and teaching degrees, as well as the traditional Diplom. Students can also complete a “Meisterschüler” (Master Class) course at BURG. BURG also has the right to award doctorates in both faculties.
 

Designblok Prague

The international Designblok Prague festival is the largest design and fashion fair in Central and Eastern Europe and takes place in the creative heart of Europe. The six-day festival begins with a Professionals' Day for trade visitors and then continues with a five-day exhibition open to the public. New projects from over 200 carefully selected manufacturers, studios and established brands are presented there. The festival's curated exhibitions address current social issues and focus on the work of both emerging and established designers. Around 41,000 people visit the Designblok festival every year. In addition, a laboratory for contemporary design offers exciting insights into innovative solutions, creative ideas, prototypes and small-series productions.

BURG at Designblok in Prague

Period: 7 to 12 October 2025
Opening hours: 7 October 2025, 12 noon to 5 p.m., 8–11 October 2025, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., 12 October 2025, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Place: Křižík Pavilion E, KE.54, Výstaviště 170 00, Praha 7-Bubeneč, Tschechien
Exhibition Support: Philipp Witte
Further Information: https://www.designblok.cz/en/designblok#vstupenky
Social Media: BURG communicates the trade fair appearance on social media with the hashtags #BurgHalle and #BurgShows