Hauptziel des Netzwerks ist es, den Diskus in der Schweizer Designforschung zu fördern. Jährlich findet eine grosse SDN-Konferenz statt, deren Resultate publiziert werden; mehrmals pro Jahr bietet sich die Gelegenheit für Designforschende, sich an Kolloquien zu aktuellen Themen auszutauschen.

Die Website http://swissdesignnetwork.org/ stellt Projekte und involvierte Hochschulen vor und verweist auf die jährlichen Symposien resp. Konferenzen und Kolloquien. 

Konferenz 2010 in Basel: Negotiating futures. - Design fiction.
The Academy of Art and Design FHNW in Basel and the Swiss Design Network are pleased to invite you to participate in the 6th Annual Swiss Design Network Conference in Basel, Switzerland, October 28-30, 2010.

The SDN Conference belongs to the leading European design research conferences and brings together scholars, professionals and students who come from diverse backgrounds and share interests in design and design research.

The 2010 conference theme addresses the topic of “negotiating futures. design fiction.“ It builds on the assumption, that designers see the world not simply as it is, but rather as it could be. In this perspective, the world is a laboratory to explore the contingency of the existing and the thinking in options. Imaginations of the contra factual are a key source for the creation of alternative political, technological, social, or economic constellations of artefacts, interfaces, signs, actors, and spaces. At the same time, strategies of materialization are pivotal to shift the boundary between the fictional and the real and to finally bring possible new realities into being. The conference therewith addresses the question of how fictions are designed and how the multiplicity of possible new futures is negotiated and realized.

Please visit our website.

Konferenz 2009 in Lugano: Multiple Ways to Design Research
The Fifth Symposium of the Swiss Design Network wants to highlight
research cases informed by knowledge of other disciplines to understand their relevance for design theories, methods and practices.

The conference aims to present a multidisciplinary overview on research projects - from those ones originated within the design field to those ones originated within other fields - that produce design research outcomes useful to outline those theories, methods and practices which influence and reshape the design discipline.

The framework of the conference is based on the assumption that the evolution of sciences and technologies, and their impact on society, suggests new research questions that constantly tend to expand the ways to design research - in term of topics of interests, approaches and contaminations - research questions that can be relevant for the design knowledge, practice and education.

Delivering both overviews and deepening, the conference keynote speechs and the parallel project sessions are addressed to a wide range of attendees: senior researchers of academia and of corporate R&D departments, PhD and master students coming from different disciplines, industry exponents involved in the design development and production.

http://www.multipleways09.ch/

Konferenz 2008 in Luzern: Focused
The Symposium 2008 of the Swiss Design Network (SDN) had put the «daily practice» of design research on its agenda. Real-world design research projects illustrate questions, processes, methods and activities, with which they have been planned, approached, executed and evaluated. Projects were connected to various design disciplines, ranging from product design to interface design, visual communication and service design. In other words: projects were related to products, services, interfaces, information, communication and environments, or they focused on integrated systems of products, services and customer experiences.

Mit Rosan Chow, Alain Findeli, Karmen Franinovic, Gavin Melles, Kristina Niedderer, Margareta Tillberg, Teal Triggs u.a..

http://symposium-konkret-08.hslu.ch/

Publikation: "Focused" : current design research projects and methods : Swiss Design Network Symposium 2008, 30-31 may 2008, Mount Gurten, Berne, Switzerland / Concept and editing: Roman Aebersold, Bettina Minder, Arne Scheuermann. - Genève : Swiss Design Network, 2008.

Konferenz 2007 in Genf: Drawing new territories
Publikation: Drawing new territories / 3rd Symposium of design research 2006 ; publisher: Swiss Design Network ; concept and editorial: Ralf Michel, Lysianne Léchot. - Zürich : Swiss Design Network, 2006.

Konferenz 2006 in Zürich: Forschungslandschaften im Umfeld des Designs
Publikation: Forschungslandschaften im Umfeld des Designs / Zweites Design Forschungssymposium 2005 ; [Veranstalter]: Swiss Design Network ; [Projektleitung: Ralf Michel]. - Zürich : Swiss Design Network, 2005.

Konferenz 2005 in Basel
Publikation: Erstes Design Forschungssymposium : 13.-14. Mai 2004, HGK Basel / Ralf Michel. - Zürich : Swiss Design Network, 2004.

Das SDN ist ein Organ der Direktorenkonferenz der schweizerischen Hochschulen für Kunst und Design DKKD.

Der Vorstand setzt sich aus den folgenden Personen zusammen:

• Basel: Martin Wiedmer (Präsident des SDN);
• Bern: Arne Scheuermann;
• Genf: Lysianne Léchot Hirt;
• Lausanne: Christophe Marchand;
• Lugano: Polly Bertram;
• Luzern: Roman Aebersold;
• Zürich: Ralf Michel.