SUPSI DACD - Hall

SUPSI DACD - Lecture Hall

Mendez Palacios Maria Paula - HKB MA Design Research

Maternity, a universally significant life event, takes on new layers of complexity for migrant women as they navigate unfamiliar healthcare systems, cultural differences, and limited support networks. For Latin American migrant women in Switzerland, these challenges are compounded by language barriers, cultural dissonance, and the absence of traditional family structures that often provide emotional and practical support during motherhood.
This research investigates the key barriers encountered by Latin American migrant women at various stages of the maternity process—family planning, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum—and examines how formal and informal support networks (including healthcare professionals, organizations, and community actors) either facilitate or hinder their access to culturally relevant care.
A journey map is used as a analytical tool, visualizing the emotions, pain points, and available support systems throughout the maternal journey. The map offers a detailed view of how cultural gaps, language issues, and the lack of familiar support structures shape these women’s experiences and highlight deficiencies in the existing healthcare system.
The findings, based on interviews and focus groups, aim to inform future interventions that could improve the inclusivity and accessibility of maternal care for migrant women in Switzerland, addressing the specific barriers identified in this study.

Man Io (Cathy) Lai - HSLU MA Eco-Social Design

The wait for an asylum decision can be particularly challenging in rural areas, as I’ve observed first-hand at the asylum center in Morschach. While connecting with the local community could make this time more meaningful, establishing these connections is no easy task. Guided by the UNHCR’s Handbook for Effective Inclusion of Refugees, I’m transforming the Morschach center into a testing ground! Together with asylum seekers, volunteers, and community groups, we’re co-creating a practical, step-by-step toolkit for fostering mutual exchange in Switzerland’s rural settings. The goal? Empowering asylum seekers while enriching the host community with new perspectives and opportunities.

Michelle Sarah Weber - ZHdK MA Knowledge Visualization

About one third of Switzerland's land area is currently covered by forest. But how will our forests develop in the future? Can we continue to benefit from their ecosystem services despite climate change? For my master's project, I worked with researchers at ETH Zurich who are addressing these important questions. I explored how the potential of virtual reality (VR) technology can be used to present and communicate urgent forestry issues, different scenarios and the aspect of time. In the process, I explored the importance of visualization in the context of climate communication, and applied my findings in the design and development of my VR prototype.

Carolina Márquez Bernard - ZHdK MA Visual Communication

“Speaking Bread. Relationships beyond Materiality” is a multidisciplinary research project that delves into some of the most pressing questions linked to the current ecological crisis and the necessary redefinition of human activity on the planet, by examining the relationships that emerge between human and nonhuman entities through the process of making artisan and traditional bread.
The bakeries and special types of bread presented in this project are rapidly disappearing, and with them, part of an entire cultural heritage. By documenting this phenomenon, “Speaking Bread” enlightens the importance of preserving the traditions, specifically the ways of working, relating, and creating through the craftmanship embedded in this simple yet essential everyday product—bread.
Thus, the relevance of this research relies on bread as the medium for material knowledge. It explores the notion of a "new materialism" to a traditional way of making things by means of design, shedding new light on theory and practice, and nurturing new dialogues that suggest exploring new possibilities in the human-environmental relationship.

Jacob Kouthoofd Martensson - ECAL MA Product Design

The synthesizer has arguably had a bigger impact on modern culture than any other product, perhaps even as much as the computer or the smartphone.
From its beginnings in the 1920s to modern MIDI controllers, the synth has sought to create impossible sounds no other instrument can produce. The product successes and failures have resulted in new music-production methods and sounds in genres such as electronic, hip-hop, and more.
The aim for this thesis is to explore this relationship between musician and object, the design choices that leads to new music exploration and the democratisation of music making machines.

Ka Young Lee - SUPSI MA Interaction Design

Whether it's setting up alarms or handling complex tasks, voice-first AI assistants are changing the way we interact with technology by seamlessly combining voice, visual, and other multimodal feedback. Yet, when these systems fail to understand us, it often leads to frustration and erodes trust. Users may find themselves rephrasing commands or, in some cases, abandoning the task altogether. Diving into these moments of failure where the user feels misunderstood, this thesis explores how they can be transformed into opportunities for better communication through multimodality. By combining voice, visual feedback, and other cues, the research investigates how AI systems can recover from these errors by actively clarifying user intent.

Simon Litschi - HSLU MA Design

Imagine interacting with natural materials like wood when playing an electronic instrument, turning on a light switch, or snoozing your alarm clock. In collaboration with Christopher Dreimol at ETH "Wood Material Sciences", I'm exploring the potential of integrating advanced sustainable technology into everyday objects. While fully sustainable electronics are still a utopia, this work takes the first steps by prototyping a vision where design meets material science.

Yvee Nogara - FHNW MA Masterstudio Fashion
Connor Muething - FHNW MA Masterstudio Scenography

From2tv is a new media project that focuses on exploring and staging the absurdities of modern human life. In the spirit of a traditional news network, we combine cultural phenomena with hard science and data about the state of our current reality.
Our first episode explores the topic of "HEAT", with the entire first season focused on the eight basic physiological needs of humans. The key ingredient of from2tv is that each segment shows a meeting of the factual and 'serious' with the pop cultural and traditional. We see the creation of this new format as helpful for us, and our audience, to grapple with some of the contradictions and strangeness of this moment.
With a lean production that uses a combination of life-size and miniature stage elements and costumes, we can create a playful framework to develop new futures and alternative perspectives on our past and present.

Wilhelm Matthias - HKB MA Design Research

This research addresses the challenges and potential impacts of integrating generative AI into the design phase of the Swiss landscape architectural industry. The central issue lies in the industry's cautious adoption of AI tools, primarily due to concerns about accuracy and the practical relevance of these technologies in everyday work. Many professionals remain skeptical, fearing that generative AI could disrupt traditional workflows without offering sufficient benefits. Additionally, the rise of untrained "prompt engineers" working in environments with minimal oversight may exacerbate the problem, as their outputs might not meet the industry's rigorous standards. The integration of AI in landscape architecture raises social concerns, including potential job displacement, the devaluation of traditional expertise, and ethical implications around creativity and oversight, emphasizing the need for careful, inclusive implementation strategies. The study emphasizes the need to address these concerns early on, exploring both the opportunities and potential pitfalls of AI in landscape architecture before its widespread implementation becomes inevitable.
By highlighting the slow integration and prevailing skepticism, this research outlines the broader implications for the profession, including shifts in required skills, changes to professional roles, and the accessibility of expertise through AI-driven tools.

Joé Mertenat - FHNW MA Digital Communication Environments

This practice-based research critically explores the processes of data production and interpretation, especially for complex, ambiguous, and context-dependent data, such as data generated from social media conversations. By focusing on AI-driven techniques and data visualization—two increasingly prominent tools in contemporary data analysis—this research seeks to unpack the methods by which data is generated, structured, and presented. Through this lens, it will question the underlying assumptions, biases, and parameters that shape both the identification of patterns and the interpretive frameworks applied to such data. Central to this study is the role of critical thinking in evaluating these processes, challenging the ways in which data is produced and meaning is derived.

Alice Mioni - SUPSI MA in Interaction Design

This thesis examines the environmental impact of generative AI, focusing on “generative waste”—the discarded content created during iterative image generation, often unnoticed but energy-intensive. By positioning digital consumption as an emerging environmental concern, this research reinterprets sustainable principles—reuse, reduce, recycle, and collect—specifically within the context of design, where generative AI serves as a creative co-creator.
With an emphasis on educational frameworks in visual design, this study seeks to foster digital sustainability among emerging designers and the educational environment. Through slow design principles, the thesis advocates for a mindful and sustainable approach to generative AI, laying a foundation for environmentally conscious design practices and innovative educational strategies in the field.

Giulia Zanzarella – ECAL MA Type Design

How to master the skill of creating a visual and fictional world behind a typeface? And how does a typeface tell its story? The research investigates the intersection of storytelling, naming, and type design, exploring the factors that have transformed typefaces from functional tools into commercial products and cultural artifacts. The talk explores how typefaces have been presented and embedded in culture, and how different elements of storytelling and design converge to shape the identity of a typeface.

Gabriela Luchetta Dos Santos - HEAD MA Space and communication

OUT OF SYNK – Design in Queer Temporalities, proposes that through the lens of queer theory, contemporary design is transitioning away from reinforcing linear, normative understandings of time and functionality. Instead, it is beginning to engage with the shape of queer temporalities, fostering new interpretations of time, identity, and relationality while challenging established notions of reproducibility and societal conformity

Matil Vanlint - HEAD MA Fashion Design and Accessories

What’s a victim? Who’s a victim? Are you always a victim?
This thesis is a reflection on victimhood in contemporary western societies. It draws on lived experiences, and looks to queer theories and fashion to build an alternative understanding of the label “victim” and outline its potential in resisting the patriarchy and heteronormativity.

SUPSI DACD - Lecture Hall

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SUPSI DACD - Lecture Hall