The rediscovery of handicrafts and the widespread availability of building instructions online has led to a growing desire to create things oneself. As curators we were investigating the phenomenon behind the DIY fascination, asking: what does DIY mean for the design process?

Especially during periods of economic crisis or when significant attention is given to new social models, DIY concepts emerge. This is something that has been seen across many decades.

Connecting to the historical development of Do It Yourself-Design by William Morris and the Art Nouveau movement, we put the focus on the work of contemporary designers and activists, through which DIY can be understood as a meaningful aesthetic and political phenomenon of the present.

We created a journey throughout history with more than 100 ideas and objects from designers as Richard Riemerschmid, Gerrit Rietveld, Ferdinand Kramer, Enzo Mari, Viktor Papanek, Ken Isaacs, Droog Design, Minale-Maeda, Herman Verkerk, Tal Erez, CUCULA, Van Bo Le Mentzel, Jerszy Seymour, Stephane Barbier Bouvet, Magdalena Reiter, Yves Ebnoeter, Ronen Kadushin, mischertraxler and others.

An open workshop built and led by Johannes Kunz invited the visitors to do it themself within the exhibition space. Jerszy Seymours Amateur workshop #6: A Perverts Guide to Design, explored the possibility of an amateur society.

Since then a workshop is permanently integrated into the museums exhibitions.