Designing for Female Health: An Interdisciplinary Project at the Health Bells Festival, St. Pauli
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This white paper examines an interdisciplinary, practice-based teaching project conducted at Macromedia University in cooperation with FC St. Pauli and Techniker Krankenkasse for the 2026 Health Bells Festival in Hamburg. Approximately 50 students from Media Management, Fashion Design, Interior Design, Media and Communication Design, and Animation and Illustration developed experiential concepts addressing female health and related social issues. Working with a real external brief, they had to balance research, creative ambition, audience engagement, feasibility, budget, and differing stakeholder expectations. Several teams used research-informed approaches in which empirical findings directly shaped the design process. Research on catcalling informed an immersive installation using authentic statements from respondents; research into knowledge of the female menstrual cycle contributed to an interactive educational experience; and scientific literature on female-specific nutritional needs was translated into an accessible experiential concept. Selected ideas were subsequently incorporated into the public festival environment. From a teaching perspective, two insights were particularly important. First, the authenticity of the task encouraged strong engagement with complex and sensitive issues. Second, authentic complexity increased rather than reduced the need for instructional guidance: interdisciplinary collaboration emerged less automatically than anticipated, while the openness of the brief required clearer milestones, role clarification, and regular feedback. The project therefore suggests that effective interdisciplinary, practice-based design education depends on balancing agency and constraint, freedom and structure, and disciplinary expertise and collaboration. As a context-specific case study, it identifies practical challenges and pedagogical principles that can inform future projects and more systematic evaluation.
Institution: Hochschule Macromedia
Language: English
Subfield: Mechanical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204863716