On a weekend in September, the museum went into the neighborhood. At several pop-up stations on the Josefwiese in district 5, people of all ages philosophized about the act of sitting, the chair as an object and its significance in everyday life.

In cooperation with: Verein Kiosk Josefwiese and Zurich Design Weeks.

They designed seating visions in miniature, built 1:1 stools and collaboratively formed a large seating surface in a ton of clay using their whole bodies. Playful, thought-provoking or hands-on: everyone was allowed to take part in Josef sitzt, with around 900 people taking part.

In the second year of the project, the focus was on the work and ideas of Swiss design pioneer Willy Guhl (1915 - 2004). In project lessons, at the Design Kids Club, during a museum week and as part of the Josef sitzt campaign, various design and cultural techniques were used to explore the designer's core themes under the "GuhlSchool" label. They ranged from material experiments and furniture making to photographic field research in public spaces.

The activities of the "GuhlSchool" were the laboratory for the development of the interactive station "Thinking" in the exhibition Willy Guhl - Thinking with Your Hands (9 December 2022 - 26 March 2023) as well as for the conception of the educational program. By engaging with Willy Guhl's teaching, the museum sharpened its own profile in terms of design education. Guhl had a special design approach: he communicated his design philosophy with the help of everyday activities such as baking cakes, sowing radishes or chopping wood. According to Renate Menzi, curator of the museum's design collection and the exhibition, he analyzed human behavior and interactions based on non-verbal knowledge of the body and experience. As a designer, he relied on sensory perception, craftsmanship and the physical presence of objects - aspects that are also central to the museum's design communication.

The neighborhood went to the museum: the results of the Josef sitzt campaign were part of the exhibitions Willy Guhl - Thinking with Your Hands and the Swiss Design Lounge from February 18 to March 26, 2023 under the title "Josef sitzt im Museum - Interventionen". All designers, young and old, were personally invited to the museum for a day of action on February 18 to celebrate the interventions and talk to each other and the museum team.

Im Rahmen des dreijährigen Outreachprojekts (April 2021 bis März 2024) öffnete sich das Museum für Gestaltung Zürich jugendgemässen Fragestellungen und Perspektiven. Im Fokus standen dabei das in der Sammlung bewahrte Kulturerbe, das Ausloten der spezifischen Potenziale von Designvermittlung sowie museologische und strategische Fragestellungen.