Design Sciences
Design Theory
Cool Places
PROJECT
Advanced Module in Design Theory · Cultural Studies Perspectives on the Infrastructures, Politics, and Futures of Artificial Cooling
SUPERVISION
Professor Dr. Pablo Abend
PERIOD
Sommer semester 2025
The seminar highlighted how closely artificial cooling is linked to capitalist and colonial power structures. Drawing on historical examples (such as the global ice trade) it became clear how cooling technologies were primarily deployed in colonized regions of Asia and Africa to serve Western needs. A central paradox: the growing demand for cooling, whether through industrial systems or the depletion of natural resources, contributes to global warming, which in turn requires even more cooling. This dynamic illustrates that cooling has not only technical but also profound social and ecological impacts. The seminar has significantly deepened my understanding of these interconnections.
As a future interior architect, I wonder what kind of impact I can make through design. How can alternative cooling technologies be integrated, and how can existing buildings that rely on air conditioning, such as glass skyscrapers be sustainably repurposed or adapted?
Speculate and Fabricate
PROJECT
Advanced module Design Theory · Critical speculation · Telling the past, present, and future differently
SUPERVISION
Professor Dr. Pablo Abend
PERIOD
Winter semester 2025/2026
This seminar had a particularly profound impact on me. It focused on questions of how history is told, who tells it, and whose memories remain visible. Using postcolonial, decolonial, and feminist texts, we explored speculative and fictional storytelling and questioned dominant narratives of design and progress. In this context, speculation and fabulation also serve to tell a history of slavery that makes experiences of violence and trauma explicit, rather than excluding or downplaying them. Among other things, we looked at non-heroic, non-teleological stories, gaps in the design archive, and “giving voice to the silence of the archive” and “the violence of the archive.” The film Dahomey, which deals with the restitution of colonial looted art, played a special role.
For me, this raised the question once again of what responsibility I bear as a designer and how this knowledge can be translated into future design processes, because design can shape futures and, to a certain extent, bring them about.
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Design Sciences
Design Theory
Cool Places
PROJECT
Advanced Module in Design Theory · Cultural Studies Perspectives on the Infrastructures, Politics, and Futures of Artificial Cooling
SUPERVISION
Professor Dr. Pablo Abend
PERIOD
Sommer semester 2025
The seminar highlighted how closely artificial cooling is linked to capitalist and colonial power structures. Drawing on historical examples (such as the global ice trade) it became clear how cooling technologies were primarily deployed in colonized regions of Asia and Africa to serve Western needs. A central paradox: the growing demand for cooling, whether through industrial systems or the depletion of natural resources, contributes to global warming, which in turn requires even more cooling. This dynamic illustrates that cooling has not only technical but also profound social and ecological impacts. The seminar has significantly deepened my understanding of these interconnections.
As a future interior architect, I wonder what kind of impact I can make through design. How can alternative cooling technologies be integrated, and how can existing buildings that rely on air conditioning, such as glass skyscrapers be sustainably repurposed or adapted?
Speculate and Fabricate
PROJECT
Advanced module Design Theory · Critical speculation · Telling the past, present, and future differently
SUPERVISION
Professor Dr. Pablo Abend
PERIOD
Winter semester 2025/2026
This seminar had a particularly profound impact on me. It focused on questions of how history is told, who tells it, and whose memories remain visible. Using postcolonial, decolonial, and feminist texts, we explored speculative and fictional storytelling and questioned dominant narratives of design and progress. In this context, speculation and fabulation also serve to tell a history of slavery that makes experiences of violence and trauma explicit, rather than excluding or downplaying them. Among other things, we looked at non-heroic, non-teleological stories, gaps in the design archive, and “giving voice to the silence of the archive” and “the violence of the archive.” The film Dahomey, which deals with the restitution of colonial looted art, played a special role.
For me, this raised the question once again of what responsibility I bear as a designer and how this knowledge can be translated into future design processes, because design can shape futures and, to a certain extent, bring them about.
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My name is Femi Alexandra Awokoya (born 2003, Germany). I am a student of interior architecture at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle.
This portfolio combines a selection of work from my interior architecture studies and an external project. I am particularly interested in architecture’s responsibility toward society. My focus is on building renovation, sustainable approaches, and the atmospheric and psychological impact of spaces.
My designs are characterized by a calm, minimalist aesthetic, often with a social focus. In addition to designing and visualizing, I am also interested in theoretical discussions about design and society.
Get in touch: f.awokoya03@gmail.com
My name is Femi Alexandra Awokoya (born 2003, Germany). I am a student of interior architecture at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle.
This portfolio combines a selection of work from my interior architecture studies and an external project. I am particularly interested in architecture’s responsibility toward society. My focus is on building renovation, sustainable approaches, and the atmospheric and psychological impact of spaces.
My designs are characterized by a calm, minimalist aesthetic, often with a social focus. In addition to designing and visualizing, I am also interested in theoretical discussions about design and society.
Get in touch: f.awokoya03@gmail.com
PROJEKT
ReMake Science · Ein Schiff für die Begegnung von Wissenschaft und Mensch
Zusammenarbeit mit Elisa Meincken
BETREUUNG
Prof. Rita Rentzsch · KM Luise Schuhmann
Zeitraum
Sommersemester 2026
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In der Make Science Halle wird Wissenschaft erfahrbar. Dieser Entwurf erlaubt es Besucher:innen in die Forschungswelt einzutauchen, in der sie die Werkzeuge der Wissenschaft selbst aktiv nutzen können. Orientiert an einer gut strukturierten Werkzeugkiste geben sichtbare Markierungen an Decke und Boden ein Raster vor, in welches Regale eingespannt, Stauraum einsortiert und mobile Tische platziert werden und somit vielfältige Nutzungsmöglichkeiten erlaubt - etwa gemeinschaftliches Dinner, Workshops oder Podcastaufnahmen.
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Das Raster ist an Böden und Decke gut sichtbar markiert und teilweise als Befestigungen für die neue Einrichtung ausgeführt.Eingespannte Aluminiumprofile werden durch Regalböden und Stahlnetze zu Stauraum- und Präsentationsflächen ergänzt. Innerhalb der Regalstruktur bieten Eurokisten Platz für zahlreiche Forschungstools. Ein farbig akzentuiertes Leitsystem erleichtert die Orientierung.
Planzeichnungen, Details, Deckenspiegel