The Masterstudio Industrial Design programme is positioned around three current research focal points: Digital Integration, Design Cultures, and Circular Design. Discourses on global crises such as climate change and social inequality provide the framework for concrete research questions and design solutions around sustainability and ecology, future-shaping and technology, interaction and materiality.
Masterthesis Mikko Thewes, Recycling FictionMasterthesis Patrick Salz, MiracleMasterthesis Valerie Notter, Pause
Information on programme contents
The Masterstudio Industrial Design programme is positioned around three current research focal points: Digital Integration, Design Cultures, and Circular Design. Discourses on global crises such as climate change and social inequality provide the framework for concrete research questions and design solutions around sustainability and ecology, future-shaping and technology, interaction and materiality. We take a stand on this, define values and reposition design. Comprehensive, interdisciplinary modules from the three masterstudios complement and deepen the perspectives of design gained. The programme encourages students individually and with regard to their professional or research-oriented careers with ‘Advanced Design’. Advanced Design describes actions and attitudes. Which society in which environment needs which design solutions? We take on the position of “extrapreneurs”, who are looking for better, more sustainable design strategies or products. Instead of following the entrepreneurial dynamics of maximisation, we assume a collaborative, systemic, inclusive and sustainable economy.
Masterstudio Design
The Masterstudio Design builds on existing knowledge and previously acquired skills. Students actively engage with their own design approach in terms of methodology and content within a larger context. The three studios (Fashion Design, Industrial Design and Scenography) are designed to be permeable and cross-disciplinary in order to make full use of the potential of design as a practice that shapes living spaces and thus shapes the environment for the pressing issues of our time.
The programme is intended for people who have earned a BA in industrial or product design, designers, and applicants from related or design-oriented programmes.
Goals and benefits
The goal of the programme is to develop an independent, research-oriented design practice that is oriented towards current social, economic, political and ecological issues. You will develop a socially relevant and research-based question, work on it individually or collectively through various practices of experimental design and create a public for your results with the help of publishing tactics.
Career prospects
Graduates are qualified to work as designers in cultural or business settings and assume responsible positions in full-service design agencies; they can set up their own business, either alone or in a team, or they can choose to pursue a career in teaching and research. Students with an MA degree command cross-disciplinary skills that qualify them for professional work as a designer in a design agency, for a career in teaching and research, for free-lance work, either alone or in a team, or to set up a business of their own.
With its studios and central Campus.Workshops, HGK offers ideal conditions for combining craft curiosity, the acquisition of technical skills, and the necessary digital know-how. In addition, all students have their own 24/7 workspace in one of the spacious studios. In addition, the programme Interior Design & Scenography features an analogue and a digital workshop. The facilities are open to students 365 days a year.
Information on admission, aptitude assessment and admission to the study programme
Academical qualifications Admission to the aptitude assessment normally requires one of the following qualifications:
A Bachelor’s degree in Design or a related field of study.
A similar, equivalent degree in Design (at BA level pursuant to the “Dublin Descriptors").
If an applicant shows promising design potential, lateral entry from a different discipline is possible; in this case, please contact the Head of the degree programme.
Language of tuition International students are welcome to apply for the Master’s degree programme. The language of tuition is English (B2 level or equivalent).
To apply for a place at the HGK Basel, the required documents must be submitted by deadline 15.03.2025. Please send the specific enquiries to email address.
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Further Information Masterstudio Industrial Design MA
Further information on our events, projects and publications can be found on our blog.
International students can find further information on the website of the International Office of the HGK Basel.
Industrial Design BA
Aesthetics, usability, materials, emotional impact, legibility, formal value: the design of serially produced goods draws on the knowledge of various ...
Public transport The campus is easy to reach by public transport. The stop Freilager on BLT line 11 is immediately in front of the Campus (from Bahnhof SBB in direction Aesch)
By car Leave the motorway A2 at the junction Basel-St. Jakob and follow the sign Dreispitz. Approaching from Münchensteinerstrasse enter the Dreispitz complex through Gate 13 and park your car in one of the public car parks (Ruchfeld or Leimgrube). When setting your satnav, please note that the Freilager complex is part of the municipality of Münchenstein, Canton Basel-Landschaft.
Access by car for people with disabilities Choose the access via Florenz-Strasse in the direction of the High-rise building (Building D). To lower the bollard at the gates of the campus please ring the bell. You will be connected to our reception in Building D.
The buildings of the HGK Basel are accessible by wheelchair, stroller, and for people with walking difficulties. The entrance to the highrise building (Building D) is at ground level, the studio building (Building A) can be reached via a ramp. There is at least one lift in both buildings.
Access by car for people with disabilities: See Gender-neutral toilets: See ‘Getting there‘.
Toilets for people with disabilities:
Highrise building (Building D): Ground floor to 8th floor in the centre of the building Studio building (Building A): Ground floor to 3rd floor, southern section of main corridor
Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW Masterstudio Design (MA) ICDP Freilager-Platz 1 Postfach CH-4002 Basel
room D 4.05
Transversal Design (MA) ICDP
FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern SwitzerlandBasel Academy of Art and Design,
Transversal Design (MA) ICDP
Tower: D 4.05Freilager-Platz 1CH - 4142 Münchenstein near Basel
