55. Where answers are imagined
SXSW is a rich brew of exciting ideas that are gathered from all over the world. If you were there wondering what kind of environment generates these kind of ideas you might not look to the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, near Berlin, but you could do much worse.
The Institute is named for its founder, who is also one of the founders of the software giant, SAP. It occupies a state-of-the-art, tree filled campus 45 minutes from the German capital, and its creative core is the fascinating School of Design Thinking, or D School.
The D school takes 120 students at a time, for 6 month long courses, as well as offering online learning to the world. The onsite students experience an astonishing environment, working in a 'studio' with floor-to-ceiling windows filling the space with natural light and internal walls lined entirely with whiteboard. Standing tables (on wheels) more white boards (also on wheels) and racks of hundreds of Post it Notes and markers occupy the space thats not in use by furiously imagining young people.
There are no individual grades, everything is about teamwork, and the classes are careful balances of cultures, abilities, specialities, and gender. Young people are taught how to understand problems, the human point of view, ideate solutions, test them and adapt them.
For the 120 students there are 35 members of faculty, and over 10 years the programme has produced 120 new businesses as well as creating learning tools that are sold or provided for free to organisations and contexts around the world.
It is an inspiring laboratory of the most innovative ways of finding solutions to the problems facing the world. You recommended to find out more about the D School here.
The Institute is named for its founder, who is also one of the founders of the software giant, SAP. It occupies a state-of-the-art, tree filled campus 45 minutes from the German capital, and its creative core is the fascinating School of Design Thinking, or D School.
There are no individual grades, everything is about teamwork, and the classes are careful balances of cultures, abilities, specialities, and gender. Young people are taught how to understand problems, the human point of view, ideate solutions, test them and adapt them.
For the 120 students there are 35 members of faculty, and over 10 years the programme has produced 120 new businesses as well as creating learning tools that are sold or provided for free to organisations and contexts around the world.
It is an inspiring laboratory of the most innovative ways of finding solutions to the problems facing the world. You recommended to find out more about the D School here.
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