MA Transversal Design

Master’s programme in Transversal Design at the HGK Basel: Apply by March 15 for fall semester 2025/26.

Transversal Design is a research-oriented, transdisciplinary master’s programme which explores social, ecological, political, and creative processes in their complex interdependencies. On this programme students develop critical practices for worlds in transition—from alternative media, speculative models, and practices of care to tools for solidarity and radical proposals for innovation. 

Guided by an expert team and internationally recognized visiting lecturers and researchers, you will be invited to design, document, rehearse, publish, hack, play, build, research, organize, and write. You will learn why, how, and for whom in theory and practice, to co-organise the futures-we-need. This invites new ways of thinking about the role of design in society – by moving beyond objects, and into processes, modes of relating, questions of environmental-social justice, technology, decoloniality, and the critical infrastructures on which we collectively depend. 

Study with us if you are interested in designing exemplary scenarios, speculative experiences, radical proposals, collaborative togetherness and experimentally guided work. You will work on self-led projects, mentored and supported by the Critical Media Lab, HyperWerk and hands-on workshop spaces of the Institute Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM) of the HGK Basel. You will explore societal contexts of design which navigate between local and global communities. You are open to norm-critical experimentation, design justice, critical media, and collective self-organization. 

Students of the MA benefit from a rich community environment which brings creative practitioners together across disciplines, knowledges and cultures. Individuals with a bachelor’s degree in design, art or architecture are invited to apply, as well as those who are interested in exploring possible futures from other fields. Together, let’s design worlds otherwise.  

The application process for the Master’s programme Transversal Design is open now until March 15 2024. We invite interested applicants to get in touch with any and all questions. 

Find more details on the programme and admission process here.

About studying at Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW
We aspire to be an inspiring and ambitious academy while being welcoming, joyful and transformative. We value the diversity of our students, encourage collaboration and love surprises. On our campus, we offer studio spaces 24/7, excellently equipped workshops and labs, individual mentoring and counselling, international exchange programmes, open discourse spaces and social infrastructures. Our creative neighbourhood on the Dreispitz, the cultural city of Basel and our geographical location in the three-country triangle make the HGK Basel a unique place to study.

*Images above: (1) and (4) Collective cyanotyping a textile piece from the reclaiming archives workshop “Clavado en media del sol-Thrust out under the sun” hosted by Camila Amancay Chebez in collaboration with Azura Silberschmidt during the public event “To Dance on Tables” at TransBona Halle Dreispitz in July 2024. Photo: Qingyi Ren; (2) Students assembling “Infrastructuring Orientations”, an experimental publication format guided by Prof. Dr. Lucie Kolb and presented at the “I Never Read, Art Book Fair Basel”, 2024. Photo: Maddalena Maria Lenzi; (5) Zhixian Zhang “One Thousand Nights and One Night”, student work at the public event “To Dance on Tables” at TransBona Halle Dreispitz in July 2024. Photo: Transversal Design Team / HGK Basel FHNW; 6) Student-organized talk series “Chatty Chatty” by Camila Chebez, Fabian Frey, Maria Maddalena Lenzi, and Danuka Tomas to gather, exchange ideas, and connect meaningfully with invited guests. Here in conversation with Bianca Elzenbaumer (Brave New Alps / La Foresta) in the forest of Rovereto during a study trip to Italy, 2024. Photo: Kit Braybrooke.