Shaping Water

The use of water shapes our everyday lives. Water fulfills diverse technical and socio-cultural functions in its myriad manifestations and places of use, each of which has given rise to specific forms of distribution, filtration, storage, display, and disappearance.

Food or cleaning medium, part of our living space and place of relaxation or revitalization: forms of interaction with this medium and its aggregate states are multi-sensual, diverse, and complex.

We are made up of 70% water. H20 is not just a substance but the essence of life itself. Our relationship with this elemental force is intricate and profound, deeply woven into the fabric of civilization. Revered, contested, and politicized, water's significance is unparalleled, especially amidst the backdrop of the escalating climate crisis.

In the »Shaping Water« project, Prof. Carola Zwick, Design researcher Dominic Eger Domingos, and design students want to examine and challenge civilizational standards, usage patterns, and experiences to rethink the medium of water and how we experience it. Through this exploration, we aspire to develop new interaction concepts and product ideas, brought to life in prototypes and exhibits that resonate with users on a tangible level.

The project is part of the Design Research Studio within the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« (Filtering) and is constantly supported by eLAB (Laboratory for Interactive Technologies of KHB) throughout the project starting with a hands-on workshop delving into physical computing as expression of design.