A mobile creative space that can be used as an exhibition area for teaching, research and transfer: To realize this idea, students from the second and fourth semesters of interior design at HFT Stuttgart turned the university's courtyard into a construction site for three weeks and developed the HFTMobil. Together they built a kind of Tiny House, which stands on a trailer, and thus created a creative space that is mobile and can be used in a variety of ways.
The HFTMobil is intended to make innovative teaching and research a spatial experience. It took the team almost 18 months to get from the initial idea to implementation. Various designs were developed and discarded using 3D visualizations until the entire team agreed on a concept: "Black Beauty" is a wooden construction, equipped with black-stained panels and shiny sleeves. The threaded brass inserts allow furniture to be attached in a modular fashion. Shelves, cabinets or even a washbasin could be hung in and out of there quickly and easily. In this way, every user can set up the room as he or she needs it.
Students, employees or researchers can use the HFTMobil to travel to trade fairs or to festivals and other public events to present their work. The HFTMobil is a showroom today, a mobile showcase tomorrow, a mini-cinema or a learning and meeting space, but above all a place to exchange ideas and network with citizens, communities or companies. The project was funded as part of the federal-state initiative "Innovative Hochschule" and the transfer project M4_LAB at HFT Stuttgart.
"The concept of the HFTMobil at the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences exemplifies how the construction of a learning space can itself become a learning space."
"It should also be emphasized that students were actively involved in the learning space design and its implementation. In addition to the physical and digital teaching and learning space, a third space was created with the HFTMobil - a mobile space that can be used creatively for university teaching, can be used flexibly, and can be used in a variety of ways by and for all target groups at the university," said the Stifterverband jury in its decision to award the University Pearl of the Month for June to Stuttgart.
The HFTMobil was used for the first time at the beginning of the past winter semester at the end of October 2021. The mobile creative space stood in front of Stuttgart's Liederhalle, where the design fair "Blickfang" took place. HFT Stuttgart students exhibited their work there, individual pieces of furniture and models. In June 2022, it was used as an exhibition space for the HFT Stuttgart's Science Day. Here, by means of a video installation, it was shown how the energy turnaround is being realized in a municipality with HFT participation and in close cooperation between citizens and researchers.